Hermosa Beach is a very small area. At its longest, it is just under 2 miles (north to south) and right at a mile at its widest (east to west). It is only 1.4 sq miles but it has about 3,624 streets. I was driving the other day in route to pick up one of the boys from school and made 38 turns I think trying to get there. The streets just kept winding around and around and I was getting dizzier by the minute wondering if I might not get home.
Obviously, all I had to do was turn on Google maps but that would have been too easy. Sure, it would have been more efficient and there was undoubtedly a better way to get where I needed to go but there was so much learning that was taking place. That trip was a growing time for me. By no means do I have the map committed to memory and I am certain I will need continued guidance, however, I was able to develop some adaptation to my surroundings and understand a little better the context for my new reality.
I realized something in this journey…this was a necessary wandering. Along with the guidance from GPS there needs to be learning attached. There will be a continuous need for the automated satellite function, and I will continue to lean on it. But I must create some capacity in my own mind about the place I am now a resident. I have a responsibility to settle in, embrace my surroundings, and become familiar with my current home.
The more I thought about this, my mind went to the Israelites. This must have been part of the journey they were on in the desert when they wandered around for 40 years. And it also seems to be embedded in the message God was trying to communicate to them while they were spent 70 years as captives in Babylon.
This 110 total time speaks of a necessary learning and growing. Much like my directional debacle while driving, the Israelites needed to orient themselves in a new way, in a new place, trade in some former thinking new perspectives.
The desert means the ‘place of the word’ and 70 is a biblical number for complete or whole. Babylon means ‘confusion’ and the biblical number 40 is symbolic of new life, new growth, transformation and change. So, in a sense, what we have over this century in these experiences is that through times of difficulty, uncertainty, wandering, suffering, and change, God speaks and provides forging elite spiritual fitness in his beloved children.
Now, this beautiful beach and ocean view is certainly not the desert, and we are not enslaved here in California (although a few people have alluded to us moving into some apocalyptic prison), but I think I can appreciate the season of growth, of learning, of reorienting my faith and identity it will be.
It is in these places that God brings about the most radical change in us. Don’t be so fast to run from confusion, just settle and center in it. Let God reorient you to something new. Don’t get demanding or beat down in the desert. Just rest in God’s provision and learn to trust Him. Through all this, may you experience the transforming work of the Holy Spirit and God’s restorative movement of you toward wholeness through Jesus Christ.
#DazedAndConfused
#LostButLooking
#DirectionConnection
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
Brett
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