Embracing the Desert: The Gifts of Unemployment

Paradoxically, this place of danger and uncertainty became one of the central biblical images for the journey of faith. The Israelites had to wander through the desert to get to the Promised Land. (See Ex 15:22ff.) Elijah began his journey to speak to God on Mount Horeb by going into the desert after vanquishing the prophets of Baal and fleeing the rage of Queen Jezebel. (See 1 Kgs 19:3–4.) No less than God’s own Spirit drove Jesus into the desert to be tempted before he began his public ministry. (See Mk 1:12–13, Mt 4:1–11, and Lk 4:1–13.) So this place of very real danger and uncertainty became the place one had to pass through to get to the Promised Land, to hear God’s voice, or to prepare for the next phase of one’s call.

The desert of the job search

These characteristics of the desert—a place of real fear and danger but also a privileged place of encounter with God—make the metaphor of the desert a touching and challenging one for those who have lost their jobs in this current recession. We keep wondering, When is this going to end? When will the housing market, the job market, the economy get better? The truth is, of course, we do not know. Like any trip through the desert in Scripture, part of the fear and the danger is the lack of a foolproof map. We do not know when the desert will end or what might be the shortest path to our destination.
The danger is absolutely real. People died in the desert. Many Israelites who crossed the Red Sea did not make it to the Promised Land. Elijah almost starved to death on his way to Mount Horeb, and Jesus faced real temptations. The dangers we face when we are unemployed are equally real. We might lose our home or be unable to pay our rent. We might have to give up not only our vehicle and lodging but also our independence. We might not be able to make it on our own—or even at all.
This sense of uncertainty that engenders in us so much fear is the defining link between the biblical journey through the desert and the contemporary journey through a job loss and subsequent job search. We do not know when or exactly how the journey will end. We do not know how much the journey will cost, but we do know it might cost us everything. We cannot be sure what dangers we will face, but we have a constant sense of being in danger, threatened by the shifting shadows of what might happen or what we cannot control. This vulnerability and the fear it births were real consequences of life in the ancient desert and are an all-too-real part of many of our own lives during these difficult economic days.