Wilderness Whispers

Our new normal is a place totally unfamiliar to most us.

Like ballet dancers, or musicians, or performers of any ilk, the final product of what we produce on stage, is only a fraction of the time, effort and dedication that has gone into honing the art of what we do. And for most performers it is the ambiance of the stage and the audience that gives validity to their craft.

Take away this final step, and the performer is left negotiating a lonely existence that echoes in the halls of their consciousness.

Life under lockdown is like that for millions of people around the world. Our life’s work, ambition, drive, and formative thought have been conditioned to respond to an audience in our daily appearances on the stages that litter our reasons for being. Take this away and we are left floundering like fish out of water.

So great is the need for human interaction and affirmation, that we completely miss the chance to spend this ‘gifted’ alone time with the Trinity. We are so conditioned to human contact that we have sometimes lost the art of making contact with God. We are so busy shouting out our indignation to the world that we miss the chance to speak of the Holy Spirit to the crowd that has gathered.

We build our false indignation to the extent that it rages inside us threatening to destroy society as we know it. And we do this in the knowledge that it has been done before, to Christ, as we prepare to sacrifice Him again!

When the sound of a silent orchestra is so loud it drowns out the crashing, thundershower drumming of teardrops falling from Heaven as they see what we become when we crave a platform, any soapbox, that we will call our stage.

And when the wilderness whispers in an empty auditorium, who will hear Him? Who will care, that when we craved an audience – any audience will do! Whilst the audience that matters, that special moment just between God and man, will be left to gather up the feathers of the Holy Dove that lie plucked and scattered in the numbered seats.

The forest is a ‘state of mind’ ….. and spirit!

I have entered the forest alone when the sun stands high above the hills, yet there is a shadow that permeates the forest. A sense of darkness that causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand to attention. It is a black hole that the music that plays in my sub-conscious is fitting of a horror movie score. Eerie sounds and shapes and shadows that scare my soul.

I have also entered the forest in the late afternoon dusk, where the sounds of birds singing their ‘goodnight’ lullaby’s play harmony to the leopard’s ‘wood saw’ rasp that echoes as he inspects his territory.  All these sounds combine to form a silence under a leafy comfort-blanket, where my soul can find solace and my mind can empty itself in preparation of a renewed sense of being.

Yet it is the same forest!

The only difference is my perception. And my perception is guided by my spiritual well-being.

If my spirit is positive, so is the forest. When my spirit is depressed and apprehensive, so is the forest just as scary.

If I am at peace with the Lord, then I am at peace with the forest, because the forest is a state of mind …. and my spiritual connection with the Trinity. A connection that is rooted in the nature and existence of the forest and how I experience it and react to the world around me.

And when the spirit is right, that is when the wilderness whispers, like a ‘fairy’ bath ready for a baptism for those that that can see beyond the reality of their fears and preconceptions!

Wandering in the wilderness, lost in the mists that shroud the forest.

The sounds of the forest are dampened into an eerie silence that descends into the uncertainty that lies in the soul of man. Through the wafts of whiteness our vision is hampered until we focus on our immediate surrounds.

Through the mists there are gossamer threads sprinkled with drops of condensation that reflect the barest glimmer of light, revealing all there is around us. Tiny little mirrors that magnify the very essence of God through His creation. Everywhere we look and touch a new reality is illuminated.

And each droplet shows the Holy Spirit at work; teacher, guide, advocate, comforter, revealer of truth. Each drop that gathers on our skin, washes over us in minute explosions of joy, prickling sensations over every exposed pore.

All for the purpose of bringing us to a deeper understanding of God and a more meaningful relationship with the Living Christ as revealed through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

And so, in the mists that gently caress the mountain slopes, I wander through the forest of my faith, and I listen when the wilderness whispers.