Lessons from the wilderness

Over the last three months, I’ve written about Israel’s wilderness experience, using a biblical lens to consider how participants in family businesses go through their own severely challenging times.

The wildernesss is a phase of life that is difficult, disorienting, and dangerous; uncontrollable, unknowable, and full of unexpected experiences. It might occur in your family relationships during times of times of conflict, through a divorce or inheritance dispute, or due to the unexpected death of a loved one. You might experience the wilderness during a job departure or transition, especially during management succession. Your business might go through a difficult time, or might even fail, creating a wilderness experience. Any of these, or other personal crises, might lead to a spiritual wilderness, a time when you feel discsonnected from God and at a low point in your faith.

Here are a few lessons from my study of the wilderness experience:

1. Just like there were different areas of wilderness for Isreal (places like Shur, Sinai, Paran, and Moab), there are different “regions” of wilderness in our lives: relational, vocational, economic, or spiritual.

2. The Israelites were scared, hungry, and fearful in the wilderness, and often recalled their slavery in Egypt, suggesting it was preferable to their current situation. When you are in the wilderness, the past can seem much better than it actually was — but remember there were many frustrations and problems before the wilderness.

3. Conflict — within a family or community, with outsiders, and even internal spiritual conflict — is a big part of the wilderness experience. Some understanding about how to manage and resolve conflict can be helpful.

4. The wilderness may be a difficult place, but it can also be a place where we hear God speaking to us, if we are listening. What personal habits like prayer, journaling, bible study or devotional time, experiences in nature, time spent with close friends, small group conversations, or regular worship, will help you hear God’s voice?

5. The role you play in your family or family business may be different in the wilderness. It’s important to ask: What does the wilderness require of me in terms of leadership, support, or ministry to others?

6. It seems counterintuitive, but being generous to others while in the wilderness is a survivial strategy. Giving to others takes the focus off of your own situation.

7. The wilderness takes its toll on everyone; it’s hard to sustain positive acts of leadership all the time while you are in the wilderness. You will occasionally lose your cool. It happens. And there are consequences.

8. We often imagine business succession and transitions happenning at planned and celebratory intervals. But succession is almost never perfect. Sometimes it happens while you are still in the wilderness. Can you accept that it may not be an ideal time to make a transition?

9. You do eventually leave the wilderness. The Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. What might mark your exit from the wilderness experience?

Thanks for taking this journey through the wilderness with me. I appreciate the emails and conversations and the sharing of posts with your friends and family. Stay tuned for my next series!