Out of the Wilderness

Who can stand before Love so grand?

Not I, a fool who’s built his house on sand.

I kneel, looking at all that has fallen around,

Like me, it lies hopelessly bound to desolate ground.

How can this be made new, this broken mess?

What freedom is this when all is made worthless?

Hiding in fear, chasing false dreams, those lies of securities,

Neither knowledge nor wealth can save before the One who sees.

Yet, we do not see and we do not know You.

In the dark of knowledge, we only think we do.

It’s not you, but a shadow of glory it tells about.

I’m left thirsty in that desert, an endless drought.

What seems to be a staggering loss,

All is found by the work on the cross.

Slowly, what was dead is brought to life,

Oh, that desert wilderness, that place of strife.

Yet like a tempest that comes and goes.

With implicit evidence, we infer it blows.

So it is with you, the Spirit upon a man.

Yet my thoughts are of myself and of my plan.

In the wilderness, that sabbath rest,

I’m brought into faith, my soul to test.

Yielded will, by choice I give,

Abandoned to all, by you I live.

I was never meant to stay in this wilderness.

The wind brought me here only to teach and bless.

This place was made that I might know,

In faith of You to walk, into your presence I go.

No longer bound to a wilderness of ashes and dirt,

But directed to a garden filled with living waters, you divert.

In practiced faith and proven trust, built upon steadfast love,

I’m guided by your never-ending promises, a migrant dove.

As I wait, teach me to play like an eagle in heaven’s sky,

Led by the Spirit, that pressing wind, by faith to fly;

To do thankfully in loving obedience to worship and sing,

Never forgotten nor without peace in the shadow of your wing.