Traditionally, Christian mystics and theologians of old have maintained that God is to be found in the desert. If anyone is looking for God, they were supposed to immerse themselves in silence and go out into the desert.

What is special about the desert? What sort of place is this that God is to be found there and not elsewhere? The answer is that the desert is no special place in itself. God doesn't favor the desert just as I favor New York City over Bastrop. The barrenness and the muteness of the desert is for us — it provides a place that is cut off from the ordinary.

The Hebrews knew this in their bones and so they set a time, the Sabbath, and a place. the temple, consecrated them, and lived in relation to them. These were to be a time and a place that is set apart (that is, holy) from all ordinary things. Jacob sets the pattern for our confession, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it" (Gen. 28:16). God is here. God is working. God is committed to our sanctification (1 Thess. 5:24). But we need distraction to fade in order for God to come into view. Only in this environment of temporary detachment, can our heart learn to desire and our eyes see rightly. Only in desert, can we learn to re-engage and cooperate with God's active presence in the world.

The Psalmist exhorts us to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8). Tasting God means trying out Christianity. It means heeding its rules and exhortations. It means testing out its disciplines and wisdom. It finally means going to the cross, expecting death, and finding life again and again. In pressing into Christianity, you will find the lively and unsettling God that the Bible testifies about. This is our hope for all of us at Church of the Cross: that we may not settle for mere belief but that we would know in our hearts the power and the dynamism that has characterized every authentic encounter with God throughout the ages.

This coming Sunday, Father Nick will go over the practice of contemplative prayer during Catechesis and Coffee. Contemplation is the art of finding silence and entering into the desert amidst the craziness of our lives (in fact, every spiritual practice can be described in the same way). We hope that you would join us in our communal effort to "try" God and taste his goodness.

Elliot+