20. A Thirst for God
R
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1I
REMEMBERmy first experience with a desert. Our family traveled
from the lush, green vegetation of the Louisiana Gulf Coast where
I was raised to the empty, sometimes monochromatic horizon of the
American West—a setting of sand the cactus plant only occasionally
broke up. As a child who was accustomed to green trees, colorful
flowers, and flowing rivers, I felt the desert was very unwelcoming.
Sooner or later, every human heart will experience its desert sea-
sons. Even the most sincere believer will know times when the lush-
ness and beauty of a rich prayer life grow stale and colorless. Rivers
dry up. Flowers fade. And the green leaves that had given us shade
fall to the ground, leaving our souls exposed to new and brutal rays
of reality.
How do we approach God in these desert times? There may be a