…grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ. ~ John 1:17b NASB
Alone, Where the Metaphors End
A few months ago, my husband and I stumbled across a reality series while flipping through TV channels. Alone (History channel) features ten extreme survival participants left alone miles apart from each other in that season’s selected wilderness. Some seasons we’ve viewed include ones filmed on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, northern Mongolia, the Northwest Territories, and Patagonia in South America.
With a backpack of clothing, a few personal items, and ten pieces of equipment of their choice from an approved list of forty items, they self-document through video clips their daily struggles and successes of surviving alone isolated from all other humans. The general rules clearly state Alone, where the metaphors end:
“Attempting to live in the wild for as long as possible, the contestants must find food, build shelters, and endure deep isolation, physical deprivation and psychological stress.”
Provided with a satellite phone, a contestant may ‘tap out’ for any reason when they can no longer continue. It may be a medical need, lack of family/human connection, or starvation due to lack of food or water. Sometimes, hypothermia after falling into water as winter weather sets in, or foolish, consequential mistakes with enough awareness to realize they are no longer thinking straight. We watched one weeks in whose indoor fire got out of control and set their shelter ablaze. Sometimes, it is at the discretion of the medical team who periodically check in on them, when it’s determined they are close to dying or risking permanent damage to vital organs or limbs.
The prize money lures the flesh. It’s not until they are isolated that strength of spirit, soul, and body is put to the test. At season’s end, whether tapped out in 48 hours or 89 days, each has returned home. One is richer. But no more than the one alone – with no one to compare to but themselves – who embraces grace in time of truth.
Alone, Where the Spirit of Truth Overcomes Temptation
The first order of business on Well-pleased Abba’s docket after Jesus was baptized,1 was for Holy Spirit to lead the Beloved Son into the wilderness to be tempted (aka tested) by the devil, specifically Satan.2,3
You might ask “why would they do that??” (that’s been my reaction watching the Alone contestants described above). Over years, we gain a deepened, realistic understanding of why the Father did it first with Jesus, then those having done or doing time in the desert of the soul. He always does it with those who say He is theirs.
Jesus spent forty days and forty nights fasting in the desert before the Accuser came to him. For forty days and forty nights, Jesus was not living on the leaven of man, but being filled and sustained on every word that was proceeding (constantly going forth) from the mouth of the LORD. Jesus overcame by the word of His testimony.
(And if you begin a fast right after reading this without Holy Spirit’s compelling, you will have missed the point.) It begs the question: what have you, what have I, what have we been living on? Man’s leaven or the Word? All fodder for Spirit of Truth & Grace posts that will yet follow.
Resources in the Wilderness
Hungry people crave something to ingest. The Alone episodes showed up-close and personal, real people who needed food and water sufficient to sustain their life. Those that made it well beyond the first- or second-day tap-outs were driven to find resources in the wilderness.
They drew on knowledge they came equipped with in the beginning. Though their spirit (and talk) was willing, their flesh grew weaker, with the weight loss evident on camera. Conditions such as atmosphere, weather, and temperature; just-as-hungry wildlife robbing their food stores and traps; and their own selves’ psychological stressors, found them eventually wanting for more than what they started out with or possessed.
Those who carried anger got angry. Those who practiced gratitude were grateful. Some fighters dug deep, but to foolish detriment because of what motivated them. Others dug deep and found grace upon grace. For every bleeped-out F-bomb of some, there were others uttering ‘thank you for giving your life, little rabbit, so I can eat.’
Ultimately, when reduced to food, water, and shelter – without anyone else around, what they had ingested in life before the wilderness rose to the top like cream. Some were full of bittermilk; some had honey on their lips. Tested to the metaphor core, none of them could deny what they were capable of – and what they were not.
In the end, both tap-outs and last one remaining needed a savior to relieve them from their wilderness woes.
For Every Wilderness, There’s an Eden
Beloved journeyer – for every wilderness, there’s an Eden. Do you not know that you are Christ’s Eden?
In our case, with Christ alone, this life is not a contest pitted against others. It is why Jesus first went to the wilderness because we all need a Savior. He has already come to our rescue and knows the way back to our Father’s heart from which we came. Both Source and Supplier, He never runs dry, so we need not either.
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. Revelation 22:17
~ Gracefully Free
1 Matthew 3:13-17 2 Matthew 4:1-11
3 devil – Greek 1228 diabolos; a traducer: to speak maliciously and falsely of; slander; defame; “to injure by speaking ill of.”
4 Deuteronomy 8:3 – He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_(TV_series) Photo Credit: Pexels-Pixabay-33783
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