Sometimes I Feel Like I’m Standing in the desert

My friend Spencer penned this line for our song “I’ll Keep Walking,” and it echoed through my mind constantly last week, taking on new and deeper meaning as my family and I baked in an autumnal heatwave in the Sonoran Dessert. Temps were between 105-110 degrees and the air was so dry that our skin started cracking within hours of landing.

It’s hard to believe that anything can stay alive, much less thrive, in the desert at all. It felt like a reflection of the condition of my heart in dry seasons…longing for breakers of living water - the kind that instantly refresh the soul - to crash over me, to refresh and change me. To quote my friend Justin Carlson in his song “Cold Spring” (which has been living rent-free in my mind and heart for months):

“Give me some relief/Even a small drink of mercy/Lord quench my unbelief/With a long drink from your cold spring”

But even in the desert, there were signs of life everywhere - strong, resilient plants and animals thriving in the midst of a parched landscape. It hasn’t rained there in months, but the flora and fauna that still stand are mature. They have been nourished and sustained by what was provided and will make it until the monsoon comes and the parched desert transforms into a beautiful garden.

And for my heart and perhaps yours, I wait and trust that in seasons where the the living water we long for feels so distant - that the giver of life is building something mature and resilient in us.

Andrew and Ruby in the Sonoran Desert

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

    my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1 ESV)

Listen to “I’ll Keep Walking” here: https://open.spotify.com/track/4n6MkoscLlc7y4RkzMrNnu?si=54aac4e95c1f4e88

Listen to “Cold Spring” here: https://open.spotify.com/track/3zVnBlr1MGYmBTm2JBWtxP?si=61c48bc6ca5d4be8