bread in the wilderness

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(Originally Published in the South Jetty Newspaper)

I love camp food. I don’t mean the food they serve at summer camp cafeterias, though that can also be tasty. I love the simple, delicious food eaten around a camp fire. Macaroni and cheese tastes best after hiking up a long windy trail. One of our family favorite meals is a “hobo dinner:” It’s a heap of ground meat, cheese, ketchup, onions, and anything else you might want to throw in the cooler on the way out the door, all wrapped up in aluminum foil, and cooked right in the campfire coals.
It could be the fatigue, the environment, or the primitive feeling of conversation around a fire that makes the food taste so good. But probably simple campfire meals taste so good because they are sustenance in the wilderness. It is the food that is available, out away from any fast food options.  In those situations, often times simple meals are the most meaningful.

Thomas Merton, one of my favorite spiritual writers, wrote a book about the Psalms called Bread in the Wilderness. In it, he explores the Psalms as spiritual sustenance we can return to again and again in many settings. I have my own favorite go-to Psalms, and sometimes, when I cannot find words to pray, I will just open up and join in with the Psalmist in praying some ancient prayer of joy or lament.

Like those simple campfire meals, the Psalms offer a simple spiritual voice that can be just the thing we need when we feel disconnected: out and away from things. The honesty of the Psalms can give voice to inner frustrations, and open up a new conversation. The Psalms can even offer choice words of praise when we experience a blissful moment of wonder at God’s good creation.

Then there’s Psalm 139. That’s the one I go back to again and again. “Lord…you discern my thoughts from afar…you know my journeys and my resting places…” That Psalm reminds me that God, my creator knows my inner spiritual world better than I do, and God knows my prayers before I can speak them. Its simplicity is eternally complex. I can go back again and again and feast in that psalm.

It doesn’t have to be the Psalms, but we all need some favorite “camp meal.” If you’re haven’t felt spiritually lost out in the wilderness, you will. It’s important to learn how to cook your favorite simple spiritual meals now, before the situation arises. Practicing prayer through the Psalms or some other means will come in handy for each of us. Find your bread in the wilderness, and enjoy the spiritual sustenance it can provide.

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