”I’m planning a camping trip this spring, but I’m not sure where I’m gonna go,” my friend Jack said.

Normally, I’m a sane, rational person, planning things out, and making sure details are in order.  I’m not sure what possessed me, but at that moment in December, I think I was looking for a little adventure, so I said, “Count me in.  Regardless where it is, I’m game.”

A couple weeks later, the phone rang, “Death Valley,” Jack said.

“Death Valley?” I replied.

“Death Valley.” Jack said.

Uh-oh.

I had never seen a desert up to that point in my life, now, I was expected to sleep under the stars in the middle of it. 

Uh-oh.

My friend Father Ross was excited for me.  “What a great desert experience,” he said.  “Think about all of the holy men and women that spent time in the desert looking for understanding.  Think of Jesus and his own forty days in the desert.  Think of the Hebrews and their forty years of wondering.”

At one, my thoughts turned to the staring Hebrews begging the Lord for deliverance and our Lord being tempted to turn stones into bread.  Yup, sounds delightful.

In the end, it was.  It remains one of my favorite and most memorable vacations.  Sitting in the solitude of the desert, with nothing with the stares overhead and the stillness of the world around you, it was humbling.

When we think of the desert experience of the holy men and women of ages past, of the Hebrews, or even of our Lord, part of it was the desert - the unwelcoming environment, scorching hot during the day, cold at night.  No water.  Little food.  Devoid of life

But in the end, we all reach our own spiritual deserts.  We all face our time of isolation, our time of trial, our time when we are tested, spiritually or morally, a time when we must stand alone with nothing but the strength of God at our side.  It may not be a barren wasteland in the middle of nowhere, but it may be a barren wasteland in the middle of our lives when we are forced to make a decision.  A time when our very life seems barren and empty.

It is these times when we must turn to our Father.  It was He that said he would give us a to a eat a bread that would never let us hunger, and a water that would create a fountain welling up within us.

Death Valley was a beautiful place - filled with wonders, filled with heat and cold, dryness, and steams, and snow.  In the end, much like our times in the spiritual desert, often have to only open our eyes and trust in our faith to come out stronger and better people.