Our Wilderness Experience

Between October of 2024 and April of 2025, I reflected on Moses, his call to lead the Israelites, and his experiences bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. They were headed toward the promised land, which was physically a walk of just a few days.

The Israelites sent spies ahead, and after 40 days of scouting the land, the forward party returned with a difficult report, causing the community to question God’s promise of delivery. So, God delayed their arrival by 40 years, causing them to wander in the wilderness due to their lack of faith and trust.

And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure. (Numbers 14:33-34)

Consider our notions of wilderness and how the Israelites might have felt: Wilderness is uninhabited and inhospitable, difficult, disorienting, and dangerous. Wilderness is by definition “wild” – uncontrollable, unknowable, and full of unexpected experiences. Wilderness is what you move through. It is not a place to linger for generations. Can you imagine being told you would live in the wilderness for the rest of your life?

We may not live in the physical wilderness for generations, but we all have wilderness phases in our lives. Times when we feel a troubling change in the basic structures of our lives, when we feel lost or unsure of what will happen next. Times when we feel a lack of clarity about, or control over, our surroundings. Times when shades of fear — fear of conflict, fear of pain, fear of failure, fear of death — cast shadows over our daily experience.

Yet wilderness experiences can also be beneficial. The wilderness tests our resolve, builds our resilience, shapes our character, and renews our spirit. The wilderness causes us to focus on the essential and important. The wilderness is a place where we often meet God.

With this series, I invite you to enter not only the wilderness experience of the ancient Israelites, but to explore the wilderness phases of your own life and family business.

Can you recall a time in life where you felt physically disoriented, lost, or in a dangerous or hostile environment? Is there a season in your life where you have experienced a metaphorical wilderness?