Desert Places

At the beginning of this month I started to read through the Bible again. One chapter of the NT, 4 or 5 of the OT each morning. More or less. So far I'm ripping right along. I'd forgotten what great story-telling can be found in Genesis and Exodus. This morning I read about the crossing of the Red Sea. Just at that point when the Israelites felt hemmed in, the sea before and the Egyptian chariots behind, Moses said:

Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.

Now, I've been blogging lately about this little "crisis" of mine. Susan said it might be a desert season. And that puts me in mind of a poem by Robert Frost.

You cannot scare me with your desert places
between stars, or on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
to scare myself with my own desert places.

Well, and Frost had it right of course. The exterior desert is nothing compared to the inner desert. Messy Christian blogged about this a while back. And yet I don't want to ennoble this experience of mine with so grand a metaphor as that. I've been wondering why I'm feeling so dry, and I do think the PDL program has something to do with it. As I've said, it left me feeling out-of-step with my church. Jim (of Brainwaves, I think) said that he hasn't felt in-step with his church in years. This was an enlightening comment for me. To explain why, I'm going to have to tell you about my past church experiences. This could take a while, though, so sit tight. In fact, I don't have time to even begin this morning. Coming with the next post, the first installment of Bob's Crazy Church.