What if the desert is the only thing that keeps us awake?
"And the Spirit and the Bride say: Come" Revelation 22:17.
We live in a fascinating time. We see incredible megastructures, bullet trains, automated ports, and technology advancing so quickly that it seems straight out of science fiction. Humanity has shown an amazing ability to create and transform the world.
However, on a personal level, many of us walk down a very different path: that of exhaustion, burdensome debts, projects that don’t take off as we hoped, and the deep longing to find stability in a world that often feels cold, uncertain, and saturated with selfishness.
The comfort that numbs
When the most legitimate longings of the heart —such as starting a family, having financial peace, or seeing the fruit of our efforts— are delayed, the soul grows weary. And in the midst of that weariness, we sometimes ask ourselves a difficult question: Why does God allow the desert?
The Bible warns us about the silent danger of comfort. In the book of Deuteronomy, God warned His people that when they had houses full of goods and everything was going well, they ran the risk of becoming satisfied and forgetting the Creator (Deuteronomy 8:11-14).
Earthly comfort and uninterrupted success have a very subtle power: they numb the soul. They make us feel "too at home" in a system that is temporary. If our hands were always full of achievements and comforts, it is very likely that our urgency for the eternity would fade and that the cry for final redemption would lose its strength.
The alarm clock of the soul
Trials, delayed hopes, and emptiness are not signs of abandonment, but the refining fire that cleanses our gaze from the passing distractions. The apostle Paul understood this perfectly when God did not remove his weakness, learning that divine power is perfected precisely there (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). The desert reminds us that this broken world is not our final home.
That is why the Scriptures do not end by celebrating great empires or human technology, but with a visceral cry that comes from a weary yet steadfast heart:
«And the Spirit and the Bride say: Come» (Revelation 22:17).
Longing for the return of Christ is not fleeing out of cowardice, but the certainty that no human system, no technology, and no earthly comfort can heal the pain of this world.
May your current desert and your daily struggles not lead you away from God, but become the anchor that keeps your gaze fixed on the eternal. Because when the whole world runs after passing mirages, recognizing that only in God is our true hope is the most beautiful proof that the soul remains alive and awake.