How to escape the desert.

The Vision and the Desert.

Earlier this week, I posted about how the size of your vision is many times equitable to the length of you stay in the desert (thank you Andy Stanley).

I also shared 3 ways to survive the desert:

• Don’t give up.
• Die tryin’.
• Find a companion (or two).

I thought about this more after I wrote the post, and it dawned on me I may have answered the wrong question. While it’s vital to survive the desert, it means nothing if you never escape it.

Let me say this first.

In 2008, I entered a desert. I had a mental picture of my life, business, family. It was my vision. That year it became apparent I wasn’t headed toward that vision.

However, I didn’t know if or how I should get out. I didn’t realize how off course I had gotten.

This lasted and progressively got worse over the next 4 years. I started walking out after 4 years, but I wasn’t completely out for another 2 years…a total of 6 long years in the desert.

I’ve been in the desert. I’ve also escaped the desert. It’s possible to get out.

6 steps to escape the desert.

Here’s where you start…

1. Acknowledge your in the desert.

For a while, it’s much easier to simply be in the desert and pretend it’s an oasis rather than deal with reality.

I’m not an alcoholic, but they say the first step to sobriety is admitting you have a problem. To be free, you must admit you are bound.

If you’re in a desert, say you’re in the desert. Go ahead say it…out loud.

I’m in a desert!

2. Be intentional.

In 2013, I finally began to walk in a beautiful, green, lush life. To get out of the desert, I took 2 intentional steps.

In January of 2011, I began my first Word of the Year project. My word was FREEDOM. I had already acknowledged I was in the desert, and I knew I wanted to be free.

A few months later, I stepped away from the business I helped create. I knew it wasn’t fulfilling the vision I had for it or me. It was tying me up and holding me down.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned that year was this –

You must be intentional to find FREEDOM.

That year I was more intentional with my life than the previous 10 years combined. It started with those 2 major decisions.

3. Dig to the core.

It’s time to deal with the problem. No matter what you think the problem is, most likely you’re wrong.

At the expense of sounding like every self-help book on Amazon, this is the only right answer –

You.

Yes, you. You are your problem.

Your problem is not the kid in 8th grade who called you fat. It’s not the boss who keeps overlooking you for a promotion. Your problem is not your spouse who loves you wrong. It’s not your kids who are out of control. The problem isn’t your lack of income. It’s not your church. It’s not your parents. It’s not your junky car. It’s not anything or anyone else. It’s you.

You are the problem. You are why you are in the desert.

Other things and other people may be factors, but ultimately it is you who is in the desert and you who must get you out of the desert. God will help, but He’s waiting on you to start walking.

I was in the desert because of me. God didn’t put me in the desert. I put myself there, and God allowed me to stay.

Moses was banished t0 the desert. He did it to himself. God did finally draw Moses out, but only after 40 years of desert living.

Moses’ problem was Moses.

My problem was me.

Your problem is you.

4. Find your word.

You are the problem, so how do you ‘recover’? You begin working on you…intentionally.

It starts with searching for a God-breathed Word you want in your life.

An important key is ONE word. Boil all your thoughts, feelings and emotions into one, single word.

It may come easily, or you might need to process it for a while. My suggestion, though, is don’t think too hard. The first year will come most naturally.

5. Walk.

Once you’ve chosen your word, the work has just begun. Now it’s time to get super intentional.

You need to work it.

I’ve written about this quite a bit, so here are a handful of past posts to check out:

• 3 ways to learn from your Word.
• 7 ways to find inspiration from your Word.
• 5 steps to learn and grow from your Word.

The important thing is you not stop with choosing your Word of the Year, but you keep intentionally finding out what it means for you.

Honestly, the best year of doing this was in 2011 (my first year). You can go back and look at all I journaled in that year.

6. Don’t stop walking.

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about the Flywheel Principle. It’s tough to get the flywheel moving, but once it’s going it’s even harder to stop. If it does stop, you have to re-expend all the energy you spent to get it going again.

Once you start walking out of the desert, you can’t stop. You know how much energy it took just to take the first step out. You don’t want to repeat that.

This is why you need a companion (see The vision and the desert). You need someone to encourage you when you don’t think you can take another step…because you can.

Be bold (you have hope)!

You have a hope that extends beyond all reasonable or rational thought. You have Christ. Because of that you can be bold.

You can take the first step in boldness. You can declare you’re in the desert, but you’re walking out.

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.  -2 Corinthians 3:12