It's Wednesday!

Friends in Christ,
  Have you ever been to the wilderness?

  I've wandered out in the woods.  I don't know if anyone would call it wilderness, but I've been hiking and camping deep enough in woods that the anxious thought occurred to me that if something bad happened, I'd be in deep trouble.  (Yes, that's how my mind works... I tend to think of the worst.  I'm working on it.)  It's beautiful out in the backwoods, and yet there's a loneliness evident.  In order for someone to reach you, they have to work pretty hard.  It's not going to be easy or fast, and in many ways, that's wonderful.  We are usually so connected that getting away can be good for the soul & mind.

  I was reading Neal Plantinga's Beyond Doubt this morning and was struck by the reality that Christ comes out into the deep wilderness to save us.  It wasn't easy for Christ.  Our sin had led us deep into the woods, making easy rescue impossible.  We needed drastic intervention from God in order to restore our relationship with God.

  Thinking about hurricane Isaac as it unleashes its fury upon the Louisiana coast, the helicopter rescues of many flood victims come to mind.  People are stranded on rooftops, threatened by rising water, and they have no help of salvation unless someone makes a great effort to reach them.  I read this morning the haunting story of people being trapped in their attics by the rising floodwaters--there is no place left to go, no way out, unless help arises.  May we be in prayer for those threatened by this storm, and may we pray for those who put their own lives on the line, who risk everything to save others.

  Christ came into the deep wilderness to save us from sins.  He came searching for us, no matter how far we had gone.  It doesn't matter where we are.  It doesn't matter what addiction we are fighting or what sin we are wrestling.  Christ comes to save.  It doesn't matter if we believe that we are separated too far from God. God pursues us, rushes after us, to lead us home.  God's love will not let us go.  And so God pursues us, crashing through the woods, parting the waters, so that we might know that we are loved.

  We once were lost, but now are found.  May our lives give thanks to God.

In Christ,
Keith