How to Know if You’re Where You’re Supposed to Be

(Luke 3)

The grass is always greener on the other side.

A proverb about perception. 

A concept that is about to start speaking hard to me. 

You’ll see what I mean . . .

The journey of hard grief after Ron died felt like a long dark tunnel.

With two choices.

Stand in place . . . or move forward.

Most days I chose to trudge on.

Praying for the tunnel’s end around every bend.

Until the last bend.

Where the mouth of the tunnel opened to an impossibly blue sky hanging over an impossibly green field.

Whew. 

The grass really is greener on this side of the tunnel.

I loved that field so much.

So much.

Until I didn’t.

Until the freedom that felt so wonderful at first begins to scare me.

Because there are no signposts, no landmarks, no idea which way is forward. 

Green sameness stretches in every direction.

I spent so much energy focused on getting out of the grief tunnel it never occurred to me that once I emerged I might not know where to go . . . or what to do next.

No map. 

No plan.

Shouldn’t I have this figured out?

I don’t.

Which leaves me feeling a little adrift . . . and fearful. 

Until I turn to the next chapter of Luke.

Where my perception of the field meets God’s perception . . .

The word of God came to John the son of Zachariah in the wilderness. 

(Luke 3:2 NKJV)

Érēmos, the word translated here as wilderness, might also be translated:

unappropriated territory affording free range for shepherds and their flocks.

Free range?

Be still my heart.

That’s exactly what my field feels like.

A free range.

Unappropriated territory where the lost wander.

Where I’m wandering.

I feel so understood.

Until I read on . . .

In this free range the sheep are not lost or afraid.

Or even worried.

Because their shepherd knows the way and the plan.

So they don’t have to.

I turn érēmos over in my mind.

Luke must feel it’s important.

He chooses to pen this word more often than the rest of the New Testament writers combined.

God appears in a burning bush in the érēmos, 

where He speaks to Moses. (Acts 7:30)

Jesus withdraws to the erēmos, 

where He speaks to God. (Luke 4:42, 5:16, 9:10)

The Israelites wander in the érēmos, 

where they experience God’s presence and provision. (Acts 7:36-44)

John the Baptist lives in the érēmos, 

where he is strengthened in spirit. (Luke 1:80)

Perhaps what feels to me like a place for the lost to wander is, instead, holy ground.

Holy ground for God’s purposes.

A place where we experience God and all He has for us there.

I read online that free range chickens produce richer eggs.

And free range sheep? 

Maybe free range sheep are just more relaxed.

They figure they’re exactly where they’re supposed to be.

The place where God’s purposes are being accomplished.

Sheep wisdom.

Is the grass greener in the érēmos?

Perhaps that’s all about perception.

I’ve had a shift in mine.

Today I choose to embrace this free range season. 

To call it impossibly green.

And to believe that, even though I feel a bit adrift, God things are happening here.

And I’m where I’m supposed to be.

What do you need today?

Strength, assurance, direction, provision . . .

Or maybe just some conversation with the Shepherd?

You, too, may be standing on holy ground.

In the érēmos.

Exactly where you’re supposed to be.

See you in a couple weeks.

Love,