Imagine walking in the desert with Jesus - 40 days in a very dry climate - sand - rocks - dust - little to no water - is this even possible? In the time of Jesus - difficult to say the least. Today - some two thousand years later - very possible. Truth be told - my wife and I have spent the last eight years living in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona for the majority of the winter months or more - avoiding the winters in Illinois. What was once thought to be complete wasteland - now a booming community. Modern homes - farmers - abundance of crops - growing in the desert. And yet - the desert is still there - undeveloped areas - thousands of acres - interestingly Arizona the only state in the USA that has four different deserts. We spend the winter in the Sierra Estrella Mountains located in the Sonoran Desert with a lot of undeveloped desert areas. While we are in Arizona we spend most of our free time cycling and hiking in and around the desert areas. The southern most point of our community is located immediately adjacent to open desert land. It is at that point the bike trails end and where we located what we refer to as our - Prayer Rock. Sitting here - on the rocks - we look East - a tradition established by early religious communities who associated praying while facing the East - the Eastern sun rise - looking towards the Second Coming of Christ and more. However in modern Christian theology - in the belief that God is omnipresent - the majority of Christians pray facing whatever directions they wish since being omnipresent means that God is everywhere - constantly around us - every which way we turn. Our reason for facing the East - we look into the desert at the mountains - looking West - we would see a housing development. Obviously when placing our minds and bodies in the presence of God - the fewer distractions the better.
Deacon Dale
