What is Wilderness

What does wilderness mean to you?

Somewhere harsh and unforgiving, where survival could be a struggle, where we feel remote and in danger, frightened, alone?

Or a place however harsh and unforgiving where in our isolation we can find nourishment for our soul, solace, healing?

I have written in a previous post of Belden Lane's The Solace of Fierce Landscapes - Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality. For me the harshest of landscapes, where I battle against the elements, can be a very healing process, reaching my wounds and giving me that solace that I so thirst for sometimes - and rush hour crowds can make me feel very alone and far from being in touch with my soul or with any spiritual experience.  And busy motorways I find positively evil and playing no part whatsoever in God's plans for the human race.

In our Lent group we have been exploring wilderness in the context of Isaiah chapter 40, and we don't seem to agree on the fundamental definition! I think both can be right, depending on where we are in our spiritual journey.

And I find it very difficult to be confronted with those who profess to be so sure and sound in their faith that in any sort of mental distress they would find all the support and healing they need from the support and love of Jesus. Would that it were so easy. Wounded Healers do not come from that certainty. They gain their healing strength from vulnerability and pain. 

Perhaps my faith is weak. One thing I know for sure - I need professional medical help (albeit from those with a spiritual persuasion and understanding) in addition to my faith in my search for "that peace that the world cannot give."