"Living Through a Wilderness Experience for Years"

Pity the one who lives through a wilderness experience for years. Trudging along, herding a few goats, one sandy valley looks like another. One day, you wake up to a terrible realization. "I'm losing my mind. I can't remember one day from another! All the rocks begin to look the same. I can't count the number of times I've pitched my tent. When will I be home? Where, after all, is home? Does my family know that I'm not thinking clearly? Did the last several valleys even have a name? Oh, I'm lost!"

Physical problems when you're looking for food and water are terrible, but the realization that you are losing your mind comes as a terrible shock. 

We might think that during the "dry times" of life, there is little we can do to reach out to others. How can we share with them the abundance of life found in our Lord? 

Isaiah knew how distressing it is to lose our memories. He wrote, "Forget the former things: do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise." Isaiah 43:18-21

In a recent conversation with a friend, I caught a glimpse of an opportunity as he and his wife are sharing. His wife is in a senior's home because of an advancing illness of the mind. 

He writes, "My wife has been such a faithful servant of the LORD. Even during our months of separation because of the COVID-19 quarantine, the seniors' home where she resides attempted to compensate in some measure by inviting families to send e-mail “postcards” to our resident loved ones. 

"Consequently, I sent a daily e-mail in which I shared Bible promises and hymn lyrics with my sweetheart and emphasized her faith and secure hope in Christ Jesus. Because she can no longer read or write herself, a staff member would read those daily missives, and in the process, they would overhear the Gospel and learn parts of our life story which testified to the Lord’s loving-kindness. Truly the Gospel is not bound, and God works His purposes in the midst of unfavorable circumstances! May the LORD bless you and others as each one of us finds a way to speak of the Lord to others."