Found in the desert

We did a great prayer exercise at Bethanie this week, based on an idea borrowed from Sam Hargreaves. Using words and images, we focussed on the four places or conditions used by Matt and Beth Redman in their song 'You Never Let go': "sun shining down on me"; "streams of abundance", "road marked with suffering" and "found in the desert place". The idea is that whichever of these describes your current condition, God is with you.. But something else struck me as I read these words. Looking at the two more negative experiences - suffering and the desert, I noticed how well Matt and Beth had chosen their words. If you are in a desert place, what could you possibly want more than to be found? If there is suffering in your life, what could be better than that it mark the road of your progress and growth? Here is the reassurance that the God we follow loves us. Though we be lost in the desert, he will find us. Though we suffer, he will turn our pain into milestones of growth.