Finding Purpose in Desolate Places

Desolate places aren't always fun and pretty, are they? The dictionary defines "desolate" as dismal, gloomy, lonely, "having the feeling of being abandoned by friends or by hope", forlorn, solitary, dreary, dismal, and gloomy, according to dictionary.com. The Greek word that translates into "solitary" includes in its definition lonesome, desolate, wilderness, and solitary. None of these definitions describe an exciting, glamorous, joyful, happy, enticing, and inviting place to be, do they? It...