The unexpected pathway to the divine.
Jason Stonehouse
As a pastor I've preached and heard this phrase many times. Often we think of it as a place like a church or temple. Yet the phrase "holy ground" appears in Scripture not in a place of religion, but in a place of difficulty, dryness, confusion and lostness. "Holy Ground" appears within the 40 years of Moses' desert experience.
Let that soak in.
"Holy ground" is the place of God's presence and Moses experiences it INSIDE of his desert time. It's in the desert that we learn to listen. It's in the desert we learn to trust. It's in the desert we learn to surrender.
God's presence seems to be closest and His voice most clearly heard INSIDE the time of wandering, the time of the desert.
Most of us miss this sacred experience because we become bitter in the desert, we allow the harshness and challenge of the desert to not only question God, but accuse Him of not caring and not acting properly. And others of us miss this sacred experience because we try to escape the desert entirely.
We escape to substances or relationships. We throw ourselves in our work or becoming overly controlling, trying to manage or fix our way OUT of the desert. But the outcome is the same, we never get to experience holy ground, we miss out on the very presence and activity of God and then wonder why He doesn't care and never directs us?
The desert is where we learn to rest. The desert is where we learn to reflect on who God is and who we are. The desert is the place we learn to surrender - to let go of what we want and what we think and we learn to trust that God IS FOR US and if He is FOR us, then WHO can be against us?
It's hard and it's unpopular and it often takes A LOT longer than we imagine it would take -- but it's necessary to find what the depths of every human heart longs for --- connection, meaning, peace and purpose. These are only found in the holy ground of God's presence.
We don't know how long Exodus chapter 2 and 3 take, but it's clear from Acts 7 that Moses is in his personal desert for 40 years. When in those 40 years does he encounter that burning bush? We're not really told, but my guess is it was close to the end of the desert time. And if I'm Moses, it's TOO LONG. Too long watching somebody else's sheep in the desert wasteland when I'm supposed to be "making it happen" in the city. And yet, this is the path to holy ground and I wish I could tell you there's a shortcut, but I've not found one.
Although, I have found one thing that tends to accelerate things a little. You see a lot of the desert is about learning to STOP, to SURRENDER and to allow God to SHAPE us.
If you find yourself in the desert, don't run from it or try to escape it. Fight the temptation to succumb to bitterness or criticizing God. Instead, STOP trying to manage it or fix it. SURRENDER which will only happen by choosing to trust that God loves you and is FOR you. And lastly allow God to use the experience you're in to SHAPE you. Ask, "what might God want to use this to do in my life? How might God want to change me to be the person HE created me to be?
Holy ground seems to be a hard place to find these days, until yesterday, it never clicked in my mind that it first appeared in the desert and maybe that's the only place you can go to truly experience it in its fullness.
I don't have all the answers, but I do know that I want God's presence, power and purpose in my life and unfortunately that means I need to willingly follow Him into the desert experiences.
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Great post!