Praying with Mad Max

"The Road Warrior . . . He lives only now in our memories" (a quote from one of the Mad Max movies)

They are making a remake of the 1970's movie "Mad Max."  Mad Max is about living in a dog-eat-dog world where it is survival of the fittest.  The world is a barren wasteland of savagery and carnality. In the spiritual world, God's absence is for many people a barren wasteland.  We feel forsaken, abandoned, as we question, doubt, and struggle.  Nothing seems to help.  God has left the building and we feel all alone.  We turn to prayer but it does not help. We turn to the Bible and don't get much from it.  We turn to music but it does not move us. We turn to the church only to discover backbiting, gossip, and selfishness.

When we are spiritually dry and feel used up, it may be here we are ready for God to spark a new fire within our souls.  Nor should we be surprised by exile which is a major theme throughout the whole Bible.  The times we don't feel God's presence does not mean necessarily that we have done something wrong.  Sometimes God withholds His presence to see if we will hang onto Him in the dark and not just in the light.  It is only by being in the wilderness that we will truly appreciate the garden.  It is only by times in the dark and that we realize how wonderful is God's pure light.

One of the things God is doing is taking me through a season of stripping me of my dependence of worldly things.  Television and the media has been such an important part of my life, especially my recreational down time.  But now it has lost its grip and my attention.  I spend time now in these occasions more about being with my children or wife then it is about me watching a show.  Food no longer captivates me as it once had.  I love to drink water now which is something really new for me.  It's like as God pours out rivers of living water on my soul, I now for the first time desire and enjoy physical water which quenches my human thirst.  God is changing me both from the inside out and the outside in.  Everything is working together for the good of what God desires for my life.

Sometimes God purifies our faith by threatening to destroy it.  Is God really enough or do we have to have so many other religious attachments to bolster our faith?  We have become so busy in our faith that there is no down time for God.  God is moved to the peripheral rather than being the center.  Nobody likes waiting but waiting we must do if we are to respond to the mysterious ways of God's Spirit.  Maybe for the first time I am learning to really appreciate these moments of God cleansing my soul and nourishing my spirit.  Like Mad Max I am learning to live in the desert and even there I am finding a river of life in a barren wasteland.