“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” (Mark 1:3)
Within two weeks of giving birth to our second son, I moved with my husband ten hours away from our nearest family and friends. We moved because since the time we had gotten married, we’d had a plan: start a family, go to grad school, and settle down into a college town where my husband could teach. It was a difficult choice. We were taking a significant pay cut and were now responsible for a two-year-old and a newborn, with seemingly no support.
The one comfort was something my in-laws told us: When they were our age, they’d moved to Peru with two kids during their third pregnancy. They lived in the jungle—a much more literal wilderness than ours. But that experience of distance and loneliness in scarce circumstances, paired with their faithfulness to God, became a deeply important testimony to us decades later.
Sometimes, the straightest paths for Christ’s message are forged in the wildest wildernesses. In fact, they can be forged decades before they’re needed. My husband and I left our Jerusalem, our traditions, and safety, to do what would be lonely and difficult, but God used his people and his traditions—traditions of submission and gospel hope—to direct us through each of our wildernesses, toward Christ.
To prepare paths for God’s message, practice faithfulness, even in the wilderness.
Lindsey Priest is an Indiana Wesleyan University graduate and lives in Arkansas with her husband and two sons. She likes to read to the kids and play video games with her husband.
© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
