A Trackless Land

Helen Syski’s recent drive through Nevada brings new depth to the spiritual desert. 

“Helen, do you know what’s between Zion National Park and LA?  Vegas. That’s it.”  

My brother’s warning did help our family of 7 to be physically prepared. We did not break up the drive with an overnight. We had water and snacks for everyone. We had a full tank of gas. We had car games and favorite memories to be rehashed from our hikes at Zion.    

But no words or even pictures could have prepared us for the landscape.  

When my brother said nothing, he meant nothing. Not even a bush for a pit stop. In eight hours of driving, there were only a handful of towns and gas stations that were operational. We passed more rusted out ruins than actual stops! For me as a girl from the East Coast, where “there’s nothing” means the next exit is 15 minutes away and you have to actually leave the highway for a pitstop, this was breathtaking. It wasn’t that we had nothing; there was nothing to be had. 

The Desert  

The desert is a critical spiritual place for John the Baptist, Jesus, and countless hermit saints. It is used by the saints to describe periods where we are drained of spiritual fervor and consolation. With an East Coaster’s sense of geography, this description was limited in meaning until now. 

Hiking the Grand Canyon and Zion in 115-degree heat quickly taught us to bring two water bottles each … for short hikes. In the dry air, water was sucked out of our bodies seemingly faster than we could put it in, with little tangible sweat. If it was that difficult to stay hydrated in modern conditions with civilization at hand, the life defining struggle in arid lands of the past was brought into focus.  

In Nevada, there was no water except for one river as we drove. It was lined with cottonwood trees, just as the books say, visible miles and miles away … far enough you could certainly die of thirst before reaching it. There were black lined cliffs and mountains, and sand, lots and lots of sand, sparsely dotted with burnt and sunburnt brush.    

For the Native Americans and pioneers traversing this land, water was literally life and death. Being only slightly off your mark would put you into endless sand and rock mountains rather than into cool, lifegiving water. As a traveler. your life would depend upon the truthworthiness of your guide and following his/her every direction exactly.    

Father Jean-Pierre Caussade writes:

When you are conducted by a guide who takes you through an unknown country at night across fields where there are no tracks, by his own skill … Of what use is it looking about to find out where you are, to ask the passers-by, or to consult maps and travelers? ... If one is convinced that he is a good guide one must have faith in him, and abandon oneself to his care. (Abandonment to Divine Providence, Chapter II, Section 7) 

The pain of the moment cannot be worried about.  If it sidetracks you from your destination you will never reach it.  When there is nothing to be had, you must keep going in complete trust that your guide will bring you out of nothingness to a land of plenty — or at least a land of something!  

God is Our Guide   

In this crazy but passing world, God is our guide. He is trustworthy and demands our trust. The road we travel is too narrow, and too particularly ours, for us to look elsewhere. 

Father Caussade tells us,

When God makes Himself the guide of a soul He exacts from it an absolute confidence in Him … This soul, therefore, is urged on without perceiving the path traced out before it. (Abandonment to Divine Providence, Chapter II, Section 7)

He continues that God is always working fresh, never from a mold, that all the great heroes of the Bible are different types. 

The divine action is essentially good… Its operations are without limit, its fecundity inexhaustible. (Abandonment to Divine Providence, Chapter II, Section 7). 

We too are our own type. We do not know where we are going; follow the One who does. God knows the way. He knows the pits into which we might fall. If we put our trust in Him, we will cross the wild safely by a new route He meant for us. He will keep us from dangers we did not even notice, because we were too thirsty. 

Trackless Land  

Every school year is a new and trackless land. We must forge ahead with new teachers, new seasons of sports and activities, and new classmates. There are guaranteed surprises ahead both pleasant and unpleasant, and there will be times where we feel lost with no map. Remember that although we do not know the way, our good Father does. He will guide us step by step, with a lantern at our feet, and take us where He would have us go. 

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Copyright 2024 Helen Syski
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