Leaving Elim...

After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, they came to a place called Elim. It is described as a place where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. (Exodus 15) Now that sounds like an oasis I would like to visit! If we study the entire exodus of the Israelites, we find that they stayed in Elim for a good bit of time. At least a month or two before they came to the wilderness. I would stayed much longer - I can only imagine that I would never want to leave.

I remember as I recently started my journey with 10,000 Fathers worship school that I often said I felt like I had arrived at an oasis in the desert. Our first week long intensive was truly a time of refreshing and restoring for my spirit, soul and body. In fact, it felt a bit like I had found my own personal Elim.

We do this a lot as humans. We seek oasis in a person, a group of people, a feeling, a place or an event. We may find places where we feel more refreshed or people with whom we find a sense of connectedness and belonging. But these are all temporary - they may even be mirages that preventsus from finding the true oasis that our heart longs for.

We learn about this true oasis with the Samaritan woman as she meets Jesus at the well in John chapter 4. In their conversation, Jesus tells her that the water she is seeking at the well, the physical water, is a temporary solution. Everyone who drinks of that water will be thirsty again. But He tells her that if she "knew the gift of God...[she] would have asked Him and He would have given [her] living water." He goes on to say that "whoever drinks of this water will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." She came to the well searching for a physical oasis, a temporary solution to her immediate need. But Jesus showed her an eternal solution for the very longing of her heart.

I found a solution to my immediate need when I arrived at worship school. The "feeling" of the oasis I found there was a temporary one and it left me soon after returning home and being snowed in by the biggest storm we have seen here in years. I spent most of today wondering where that feeling had gone and why I was being set off by simple things - I nearly exploded over silly, trivial issues that would normally not even cause me a second thought. I wanted to go back to the place, the people and the feeling of peace that I had found at worship school.

Just like the Israelites had to leave Elim, I had to leave worship school and return home. But here's the awesome part about leaving Elim - GOD WENT WITH THEM! That refreshing and restoring the Israelites received at the waters of Elim - God still gave that to them through His presence, His provision and His great love for His people. We see it even in the very next chapter (Exodus 16) as God provides abundantly in the form of quail and manna. We see it as the tabernacle is built and God literally takes up residence among His people. (Exodus 40)

Even as I left my own personal Elim and returned home - GOD CAME WITH ME. And as He so gently reminded me tonight, HE is the true oasis that my heart longs for. Yes, the people, places and opportunities He brings into my life are true blessings. But they are merely an outflow of the great gift of God's presence. If I kept trying to recreate that Elim or stay in that place forever, I would miss the glorious blessing of simply being in the Father's presence. What a gift to know that He is always present, He is always with me and I need only to turn to Him to find the refreshing and restoring that my heart needs in any given moment.

Just like the Samartian woman at the well, I found myself tonight with a very real, immediate physical need that I longed to fill by returning to a time and place like Elim. Perhaps as you read this you find yourself longing to return to your own personal Elim. I would encourage you instead to meet Jesus at the well of your need and allow Him to give you the living water you need that will well up inside you as a spring of water to eternal life.

"When the poor and needy seek water.
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights, 
and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry lands springs of water."
Isaiah 41:17-18