Print(7) Paul's Silent Years
Following this theme of the desert experience, I find myself surprised at not just how many biblical characters spent time in the desert place but also who took this journey and how strategic it proved to be in their lives and ministry.
Having been powerfully confronted and converted on the road to Damascus, Saul (soon to become Paul) did not launch into full time ministry immediately. According to Galatians 1 Paul left the scene for a period of 3 years. This was followed by what many scholars believe to be anything up to 12 years back in his home town of Tarsus. If that's true, he was out of the picture for something like 15 years before he began the ministry which fills the second half of the book of Acts.
Were these wasted years? How many of us find ourselves thinking like this, "How much more could Paul have achieved had he used those 15 years for ministry"? In fact, I think Paul's ministry would not have been as powerful as it was if it was not for those 15 years in what seems to be a "ministry wilderness". It was in the desert that he received so much of God's revelation - revelation that was the bedrock of his ministry; both spoken and written.
I've spent seasons in the desert or the wilderness. Sometimes it has felt like a divine expression of disfavour. Sometimes it has felt like wasted time. Sometimes it has been a wonderful gift of solitude - just what the Master ordered!!I've learned lessons that can only be learned in the desert; lessons without which I would be the poorer.
But there is still one more biblical personality who experienced the desert. One who I thought would be the last person to need such an experience. There is one more entry to be entered in my log to round off this part of "The Desert Classroom".
