A Blossom in the Desert

If only I could convey the emotion I feel as I start this blog. It has been so long since I've written anything like this. Writing to me isn't necessarily something I do for my own entertainment. It's not for money. It's not for anyone else's sake. When I write it is to connect with my Creator and to intimately process with Him the transformation He began in me when I invited Him into my life. At times my writing is singing Him love songs or pouring out to Him my darkest pain. It's real and raw and violent. It's how I release the gift of God in me.

With that said, it has been three long years since I've written anything besides a few desperate lines here or there recorded in a nearly empty journal. Before this drought started I would regularly pour out thoughts, prophecies and love songs like a torrential rain. But seasons change as we all know and my husband and I have been in a dry place for a while now. It's not that inspiration is lacking. It's just that the inner workings of the Holy Spirit are so deep that the words are hard to draw out.

The desert place with the Lord isn't a popular sermon topic. It is a season of trials and testing, when His voice and presence are nothing but a fond memory, and what used to make our spirits come alive doesn't anymore. It's a time when loss and lack are abundant and we are forced to evaluate what moves us, rules us, and commands our attention. It is a raw and vulnerable place. But if our hearts are open and we are brave enough to endure, it is also a time like no other when the Holy Spirit strips us down to our foundation and builds us back up into Him.

So here I begin writing once again. Seasons are shifting. The desert has started to bloom here and there. It's still sparse but I feel in my spirit its time to release what has been simmering inside me during this tough but rewarding season of deep maturation in the Lord. It's time for me to start processing all that the Lord has shown me and taught me in the desert and it's time for me to start moving forward into the next season: the hidden place.