Streams in the Wasteland: Finding Spiritual Renewal with the Desert Fathers and Mothers

Is there a way to live humanly in an inhumane world?When Christianity first emerged in the ancient world, many referred to it simply as "the Way." Founded on the life, death, resurrection, and teachings of Jesus, the early church was marked by a peculiar quality of pervasive humanness--a way of being that led to wholeness.As Christianity grew in power and privilege, many felt that quality of humanness was at risk of being lost. And so, toward the end of the fourth century, a group of men and women began to withdraw from the halls of power and privilege into the desert to rediscover the radical Way of Jesus Christ. The stories and examples of these Desert Fathers and Mothers are recorded for us and can speak into our lives today.Could our twenty-first-century isolation, lack of purpose, fatigue, and pain be an invitation of the Spirit to a more vibrant faith?What if we: Embraced the disciplines of solitude, silence, and prayer?Leaned into the life of God that is found in community?Began to see our lives as divine gifts given to a world in need?Streams in the Wasteland is an invitation to reconsider the Way of Jesus as the path to a more human life in an inhumane world. The Desert Fathers and Mothers modeled that way. We'd do well to follow.