“Now Samuel died; and all Israel assembled and mourned for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. The David got up and went down to the wilderness of Paran.” 1 Samuel 25:1

We’ve all experienced life after the death of someone we greatly admire. Someone who has been an example, an encourager, exhorter, and a standard bearer. Someone who has not only called us out but called us up, to become better, to love God and others more deeply. How we react is important. Now going into the wilderness is not necessarily a bad decision. It depends on the motivation; am I going there to quit or to set the conditions to listen for God’s direction. Or am I going there to find, hang out with and become part of those who live in wilderness at all times. Not to call them out and up into a life with Christ, but to go down permanently (semi-permanently) blocking God’s grace; hardening my heart. Grief is part of life abundant, as the teacher tells us in Ecclesiastes, “there is a time to cry and a time to laugh”, and sometimes those happen simultaneously. Grief, properly experienced will drive us to call out to God who will then pull us up. Why do you go down to the wilderness? O God that I always go to search for you, to reconnect with you, to call out to you for you to pull me up by your grace. Thanks be to God!