In a Time of In-Between? A Piece of Advice from Thomas Merton

In-betweens in life are rarely enjoyable, but they’re always valuable.

Just ask Thomas Merton:

The Desert Fathers believed that the wilderness had been created as supremely valuable in the eyes of God precisely because it had no value to men.

The wasteland was the land that could never be wasted by men because it offered them nothing. There was nothing to attract them. There was nothing to exploit.

The desert was the region in which the Chosen People had wandered for forty years, cared for by God alone.

They could have reached the Promised Land in a few months if they had travelled directly to it. God’s plan was that they should learn to love Him in the wilderness and that they should always look back upon the time in the desert as the idyllic time of their life with Him alone.

-Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude (1958)

If you’re wandering and wondering, take comfort in knowing it won’t be wasted.

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