Daily Reading
God's people are a wilderness people. It has always been so. We're called aliens and strangers, sojourners and pilgrims. Our journey is construed as a wilderness journey, through rough terrain and amidst terrifying realities. Yet, so much of our lives are lived to avoid the wilderness. Not content to trust that God will show with what we need, we create wilderness security devices, things that will quench our thirst and fill our hunger. We find security in our gadgets and our jobs, our networks and our net-worth, our power and our credentials, all the while missing the opportunity to see ourselves not as ultimately capable, but as radically needy, dependent on God alone to navigate our wilderness wanderings. What we find, however, is that like John the Baptist, embracing our wilderness lives enables us to pave the way of Christ for the sake of others. When we find ourselves dependent on God, we become beacons of hope to those who are killing themselves in the exhausting attempt to navigate their lives on their own. Accepting our powerless, we are paradoxically freed to move with a new power, from God's Spirit, into a broken and fragmented world, proclaiming, 'The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.'