One of my dear friends has been stricken with an incurable rare disease. He’s been suffering from painful stings all over his body, his muscle turning sharp thorns. My heart pained deep realizing that I was helpless to lighten his sufferings except praying to the Lord to grant him a shred of hope.

We become despondent when we’ve lost even a faint hope. People are affected with hopelessness not only by mistakes and behavior but by surrounding people and circumstances such as loved ones’ departure, incurable illness, layoff from jobs, business failure, and etc. So many are fallen into despair and hopelessness not knowing how to overcome such hardships.

Consequentially, perspectives for their life becomes dark and pessimistic. They tend to lament over their miserable lot, even denying the existence of God. Lost times will never be recovered. In the same token, courage and faith, once they are lost, it would be very tough to recover them.
I’ve had a long thought over ‘how a Christian church may contribute to give hope and courage to those fallen, lost, distraught, despaired souls so that they may stand up again.’ In an effort to find a solution seeking inspiration from the Lord, I toured Joshua Tree National Park in Mojave Desert.

We’re in a dire need for Good Samaritans who would extend curing hands physically as well as spiritually to those who were robbed and injured by robbers. Those suffering from business failure need breathing space and time to rise up again. To those confound and lost we Christians ought to play a role of mentorship with God’s word of truth. In this respect my experience at Joshua Tree National Park has impacted me to experience a spiritual awakening. I found there extremely resilient living things surviving under the most harsh and barren desert environment, in which I felt a pervasive strong energy of life.

Tourists to the park are introduced to a typical plant named “Perry’s nolina”.  This is a tall, tree-like plant with large clusters of long thin leaves and a plume-like flower spike which grows up to 3 meters with hundreds of small white flowers. Under the scorching desert sun, it looks like a dead stalk, but it is still alive having its leaves collect whatever tiny amount of moisture they can absorb. I had a precious learning from this flower tree about its wisdom to stay alive despite the driest condition. It must endure an extreme pain of thirst. In other word, self-sacrifice.

The downtrodden, the fallen, the despaired, somehow, if they can endure hardship just like desert flowers and plants, a bright day of hope will definitely dawn on them in the near future. I was reminded of the word of the Lord Christ “Look at lilies in the field….” , while introspecting myself on the wonders of nature such as the resilience of life energy under the brutal sunray upon the harshest barren desert.