A friend recently reminded me of the Israelites’ passage from Egypt to the Promised Land, sympathizing in part with those who complained against God for leading them out into the wilderness to starve.   He had just come out of a difficult situation involving a girl, and felt as though he followed God’s lead only to be abandoned in the end.  In many ways I can sympathize with this sentiment, having been through a similar situation.

Her name was Christen.  Not the ordinary spelling of the name, but then again she was an extraordinary girl.  When I first met her during my sophomore year I knew there could not be a more perfect fit for me on the planet.  Not only was she beautiful, but she had a God-centered focus.  She was encouraging and counseling older girls by Christmas break, and by her sophomore year she was singing in the chapel band (a prestigious position at our school) and leading an Outreach Week team (another high honor).  She was everything a young Christian man should look for in a wife.

For no less than a year and a half I prayed for her, and asked God to focus my heart so that I would have the proper motive in seeking a relationship with her.  The more I prayed and focused my heart on God’s will for my life, the more I believed that He was leading me towards a relationship.  But then one week it all collapsed, and I was left standing without a chair.  I was rejected and all of my prayers, my focus and everything I had prayed for seemed to slip through my fingers like grains of sand.

That was the most difficult time of my life, because my wilderness was not self-inflicted.  It was not a result of sinful desires or impure motives, or doubt or fear.  I had put faith into action and sought for what was good.  When I realized that the relationship would never mature I felt betrayed and abandoned by God.  If He truly led me to this point, then how could He simply abandon me like this?  It was as if I was being punished for a previous offense, or maybe He was dangling a precious gem in front of me saying, “I would have entrusted this jewel to you had you only obeyed me in high school.”

In spite of all my doubt I decided to accept that God knew what He was doing.  I planned to go to church that weekend with the idea that I was done with relationships, and that I was going to live day-to-day in light of God’s promises and plan.  Sunday morning came and I dreaded church, because I knew I would see Christen and I knew I would have to battle all of those feelings.  But I went anyways, and it changed my life forever.

I made my way to one of the main doors leading into the gymnasium where the college group met, and at the door I passed by my sister’s roomate, Brandi, who promptly grabbed me and introduced me to two girls, Sarah Langenbacher and her cousin Kim Bartol.  Brandi was on her way to her own fellowship group and was glad to catch me because Sarah and Kim did not know anyone there, and Brandi hoped that I could show them around.

Fast forward to today, February 1, 2006.  Right now, over there by the kitchen, working on a scrapbooking project is the most precious jewel on earth, and she now goes by the name Sarah Hershberger.  In those discouraging days when I felt abandoned, I many times asked God “Why?  Why did this happen to me, and where were You in all this?  I can now see that the time I spent praying for Christen God was really preparing my heart and my life for Sarah, and—if I could have known it—was at the same time preparing Sarah for me through a trying relationship of her own.  As Isaiah 25:1 says, “O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; for You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.”

It is difficult to believe the promises of God when suffering a trial, but as the Psalmist says “Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies” (Psalm 36:5).  We must have faith to endure them, as James 1:2-4 says “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The Children of Israel grumbled against God in the wilderness, but they were short-sighted, not realizing that the God Who brought them out of captivity and parted the Red Sea had a much better land prepared for them, if they could only have faith.  They could not see that the wilderness was only the passage to an infinitely better place.

There are many times in the Christian life where things happen that we will never be able to explain, but of this one thing we can at least be sure: that God is faithful.  Sarah serves as a constant reminder how God’s faithfulness endures through the ages, His love never fails and His promises are always fulfilled.  Her presence is like the rainbow, reminding me that following every storm is a promise, and beyond every wilderness lays a Promised Land.

(c) 2006 Veritas Road