An Oasis or a Desert
I read an article that was most thought provoking. It was about the desert in Sudan. The article stated that “the people of the Sudan lived in fear of a massive sand dune threatening to engulf their homes and gardens.” The article went on to say that the desert is moving southward across the Sudan, west of the White Nile, at a rate of about 3 miles per day.
Until reading this article I never realized that the deserts move. I’ve seen “Lawrence of Arabia” and watched the great sand storms, but the desert was always the desert. It would blow and do its thing but always in the place where deserts blow and do their thing. A desert was not something that moved around from place to place.
But, now let’s CONSIDER– why not? A desert is a place which is, like anything else, determined by the conditions around it. Therefore, a desert would most naturally move wherever the conditions permitted it to move. An oasis holds back the desert because it does not give the desert the conditions it needs to be a desert. A desert does not flourish in fertile valleys.
CONSIDER a moving desert, and how, although we do not live in the Sudan, we are able to feel the effects of the moving desert. I would imagine that from time to time most people can become dry and lifeless. At these times, we must look around us and see what conditions we are permitting to exist in our lives. Are they conditions of a desert: inactive, criticizing and disbelieving; or are they conditions of an oasis: active, affirming and believing? What conditions exist in your life?
“They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock and water gushed out.” (Isaiah 48:21)
Wendell Mettey
Revised 4/9/2013
