The View From Mt. Nebo

Above is the view of the "promise land" from the top of Mt. Nebo... just as lush and green as you imagined, right? I'd also like to remind you that this picture was taking just after the rainy season.

I am so grateful for having received this opportunity to spend a semester in Israel. The majority of my days were eye opening, mind blowing, and life changing. I’ve experience more in these short months than I have in my entire life previous. And I’m sure the remaining years God decides to grant me on this earth will be spent unpacking this incredible experience. The reality of my time in this land surpassed all of my expectations, and the gratitude I feel right now is more than overwhelming. Every time I look across the landscape of Jerusalem from the rooftop view of my room, I feel unworthy of such a grace and can only imagine the grace stored up for me in the age to come if this is the grace granted to me now. I can’t express my appreciation for all the thoughts and prayers of my friends and family back home. I definitely believe it was those prayers that made this experience what it was –difficult, challenging, uncomfortable, haunting, sleepless, weighty, and full of joy. I can’t thank you enough.

This trip was truly a wilderness experience for me (that is the best way I know how to describe it). Like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus, Jesus going into the wilderness after his baptism, and Paul spending 3 years in the wilderness of Arabia after his Damascus road conversion, I too felt drawn into such a wilderness season. Detached from all familiarity and normality, God took me into the wilderness to teach me the path of a disciple. And very quickly, I leaned the only path of a true disciple of Christ is the Calvary road. I had often hoped that this semester would be a sort of mystical, spiritual high, but the reality was much different. This semester was real and grounding, as I felt a consistency of the Spirit moving, purging, and refining within me throughout all of my days in Israel. But now I am leaving the wilderness and plunging back into the realities of everyday life. Like Moses, I stand on Mt. Nebo, gazing into the land of promise; and if God allows, I will leave this wilderness and enter the land. But I am filled with much uncertainty, because everything I’ve learned in the wilderness will now tested. My season of preparation is over. The time has come for me take action; the time has come for me to enter the land. And if I’ve learned anything from my experience in Israel, it is this –the “promise land” is not a promise of God giving his children everything they want, but a promise of God caring for his children no matter what. And with the promise of such a faithful God despite the faithlessness of his children, I can boldly enter the land.

Confident in the promise,
Danny