a desert of praise

it would seem to me that a desert of praise is something that, horticulturally speaking, would not be able to exist.  the only praise you'd hear in a desert would come from a depleted, exhausted, dehydrated hiker when one had found water. doesn't it seem like sometimes, when you are looking and wanting something super bad, it seems the furthest away? One wouldn't set off on a voyage through the desert without water. 

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants.

Doesn't sound very welcoming, or lively.  When i think of a desert, i think of my eyes squinting against an ever-present hot ball of sunshine.  a tumbleweed of dry, arid fog thickening the back of my throat.  sweat droplets sizzling my forehead and evaporating before i can wipe them away with the back of my hand. any hope of finding water dwindling with each step. 

sounds depressing. and unless you were a cactus in your former life, i'd say that description would sound rather depressing.  i finished watching a corny Christian-made movie right before i got up the angst to write this stinkin' thing.  and ya know what, i almost cried.  but it was still corny....
and true.  the movie was called Letters To God.  It was based on a true story about a young boy that is infected with cancer and eventually loses the battle here in the physical world.  But while he was alive, he wrote a letter a day to God, praying that all would come to know the real God.  a pretty lofty goal for a young boy...for anyone, really. the world...is HUGE. but then again, i guess God is too

When the movie neared the ending, it didn't dwell on the fact that he died.  It didn't even show a funeral scene or gobs of tears and tissues.  and i was challenged during that entire movie.  why?  because this little boy had hope.  He never waivered in his faith and belief in God. in fact...he believed FOR others!!!! what kind of strength is that???  what kind of faith is that??? i don't get it. He knew he was going to die.  And his hope didn't lie in the things on the earth he was leaving behind, his hope was cemented in the realization that he was going to be with God. but as i sat up to get off my bed, the phrase that hit me and hit me hard was, "a desert of praise." 

So i stopped at the edge of my bed and sat there thinking..."what in the world does that even mean? it doesn't even make any sense!"  a desert of praise.  and then i began to see. God doesn't make sense the way He does things sometimes.  He says you're strongest when you're weak.  Give and He gives back more. lose your life to gain it. what?!?!!  and a slew of other things.  a desert of praise.  if a desert is a place where hardly any life is able to be lived, but praise is adoration for the one that created that desert, it sounds like a lonely place.  an arid, dry, lonely place full of adoration. 

I realized i am in a desert and i have the choice to praise or keep silent.  licking my dried, chapped lips, wringing out my sweat-filled shirt.  But the Bible says...God inhabits the PRAISES of His people.  So even when i'm in the desert, He inhabits a desert of praise.  And He is the living water.  Even when I'm alone, I'm never really alone. He never leaves us nor forsakes us.  When I don't understand why, He gives wisdom to those that ask.  When I'm afraid, I lift my eyes to the hills, my help comes from the Lord.  And when my heart breaks more every day, He is near to the broken-hearted. 

In my desert, i choose to praise.  when i close my eyes, i can see myself shouting praises into the thick nothingness of air. and He's there. and He's kind. and He's gentle. and He's perfect. and He's real. and He's honest. and He's faithful. and He's everything you need in your desert of praise.