I've had on my heart the past couple of weeks the sense that many of you are tired. Maybe even you feel like you are in a bit of a dessert. Life is hard for you in this season. Or maybe you are finding this stage of the simplechurches journey to be a trial. Whatever the case, you find yourself longing for an easier road.

But what if that is not God's will for you/us? What if he is the one that has led you into the dessert - because he knows that he has something better in store for you. And what if, part of that better isn't over the hill in the elusive "promise land" - but its right here in the dessert.

I don't know if we'll ever fully embrace it - but most of life is lived in the dessert. And I beleive that it is orchastrated to be that way by God himself. Why? Because in the dessert, God has an ability to reveal himself and his care for a people like few other places.

We tend to view the dessert with negative lenses - but what if the dessert is actually one of the most wonderful, God revealing places on earth. It was for the Israelites.

This week and next week we're going to follow Israel as they leave Egypt and make their way to the Promised Land - via that dessert. As we do so we'll see things about ourselves, we'll see things about our place in simplechurches, we'll see things about the kind of people God is shaping us to be, and most of all we see things about God - things we can only fully see in the dessert.

Think you are in the dessert? Don't fear. Don't fret. Don't long for another place - an easier place. Rejoice. Press on. Run the race. Keep going. God is with us... and he will provide. He will make himself known. It's the glory of the dessert.