In the Wilderness

When we hear the expression of being ‘in the wilderness’ or having a ‘wilderness experience’, it immediately conjures up negative overtones.  We think of being in a bleak place where we struggle to make any progress.  There also seems to be an overwhelming sense of loneliness, of being disconnected or somehow excluded from the life enjoyed by others around us.  It reminds us of a great desert with apparently so little life. (although wildlife documentaries now show that there is much life in the desert if we look for it).  One positive outcome of this sort of desert life comes from the example of the Desert Fathers, as they were known.  They were the forerunners of the monks and nuns who set up monasteries and convents so as to separate themselves from general society.  They became known as people of great spiritual awareness and left a lasting legacy for the church.

It seems then that by taking away the customary props of everyday living, we are able to gain a different and sometimes deeper sense of the world around us.  Things that become a force of habit can have a sort of drug-like effect of dulling some senses and create a dependency culture.  Often denying those things that have such comforting results can often heighten the other senses.  This of course was the original idea behind the giving up of something for lent – not in order to cultivate a spiritual smugness mistakenly thought of as a sort of martyrdom and self-denial.  It is the freeing ourselves of those hindrances that tie and limit our curiosity that can allow us to explore and heighten our spirit to new possibilities.  It has a way of clarifying our spiritual vision.  John the Baptist, Jesus and Paul all spent time in the desert before they began their important life’s work.

According to Wikipedia though, a wilderness is not just a desert place that appears barren and fruitless, it is ‘a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity’.  The word ‘wilderness’ is derived from the notion of wildness.  In other words something that is not controllable by humans.  Looking at wilderness this way would include areas within which natural processes operate without human interference.  So wilderness is not only the desert places but also jungles or places rarely visited by humans where nature is allowed to follow its natural flow.  I can’t help comparing it with our well-kept gardens with their manicured lawns and plants all in neat rows or as part of a larger collection making a particular display, so controlled that anything that dares to step out of its allotted place is plucked out and dealt with.  What a difference with the freedom of the wilderness to just go with the flow.

It is fascinating to watch such programmes on TV that show such places.  Only a few native tribes remain in such places and it is amazing to see just how they adapt their lives to correspond with the ways of the land around them.  They have found different ways of living from anything we know in our big towns and cities.  They respect their surroundings and have learnt to live with and from the land.  Adventurers like Ray Mears show how to find new and different ways of finding food and how to cope in such a wild environment without the home comforts we are used to.  So the wilderness experience would seem at a closer look to be not a thing of barren despair or loneliness but a place of freedom and exploration, making discoveries, finding new and wonderful ways of doing things and different foods to sustain us, learning to live with the cosmic ways of the universe and creation instead of forcing creation to accommodate our fads and fancies. 

In my onward spiritual journey, I find myself in a new landscape - with challenges, yes - but instead of hankering after the controlled environment and being content to simply exist in old and comfortable ways, I want to embrace the wilderness, follow the freedom of the wild and discover more of God that until now has remained beyond my sphere of activity.  I am curious for more.