Finding Your Soul by David Anderson
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Eve
lived in a world without a past to go on. First Woman. She had no predecessors to look to. Imagine this. Eve appears one day in a lush garden, having no idea where she came from. There’s only one other human, a man, and he is her husband. She reaches for too much of this…
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Poor Wayfaring Stranger
On Saturdays our companions are musicians. To accompany all those we’ve followed through Wild Places this week, I can’t think of a better song than “Poor Wayfaring Stranger.” It speaks of someone wandering, far from home. And it’s sung by Rhiannon Giddens, an Afro-Irish singer whose rendition will rend your heart. Watch and listen, and…
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Ruth
is a heroine of faith because she aspired to something greater than survival. We only meet this Moabite woman because an Israeli family, in the middle of a devastating famine, flees Bethlehem in search of food. Naomi and her husband Elimilech arrive in Moab, their two sons marry Moabite women—Orpah and Ruth—and then all the…
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Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego
are fire walkers. These three young Jewish men were exiled in Babylon because King Nebuchadnezzar had defeated Israel and brought them to his kingdom as captives. Yet like their fellow Israelite, Daniel, the three were recognized as gifted and rose to prominence in the court of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:1-30). All wonderful—until Nebuchadnezzar did the typical…
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Noah
was undoubtedly bored. Ever since humans took to the waves, ennui has been aboard. Like war, life at sea can be “interminable boredom punctuated by moments of terror.” In the psychological doldrums, sailors carved scrimshaw, made up sea shanties, sang them over and over, played cards, drank beer and rum. Noah’s voyage was worse for…
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Cain
was a wilderness wanderer, exiled for the sin of murdering his brother Abel. But—did he wander with a dog by his side? Cain, frightened at the prospect of being alone and vulnerable, cries out to God, “My punishment is more than I can bear . . . . Whoever finds me will kill me” (Gen.…
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Hagar
is the wild card in God’s plan of universal salvation. When her mistress Sarah cannot conceive, Sarah gives her slave to have sex with Abraham (Gen. 16). Like a lot of poor women, Hagar is just given like a piece of property; her body is not her own. She gets pregnant, bears Ishmael, and Sarah…
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Jesus
begins the Lenten journey—every year—by heading out to the wilderness and taking us along (Mark 1:9-15). The wilderness is often portrayed as an ominous and threatening place—avoid it at all costs. But what if it has a word for us, a message from God? Because the Exodus sojourn in the wilderness became the single most…