Isn't life strange? It can be like a desert journey. We travel along and finally get to where we want to be, and when we get there we find it empty, gone, or much less than we had anticipated. The desert mirage disappeared as we came up to it! Now what do we do?

Desert madness sets in. We become disoriented by the boiling heat of worldly dreams lost. We begin to pray. We pray for water- "Just water! Please!" And in God's time, soul-water begins to flow in our hearts. It comes by repentant prayer.

Passionate prayer is how we connect to God, Who is the Fountain of Life. At the end of our false dream we find that while God is more invisible than the mirage we were pursuing He is totally tangible to our souls. No more illusions- the invisible God is what we seek! When we pray we come to feel His refreshing love on our hearts: His blessed Spirit. After our desert folly we drink from the Rock, Christ, from Whom flows the Water of Heaven. Though unseen, He is no mirage in the desert. He is the real oasis of Life, moist with green plants, a crystal pool of water, blessed forevermore.

Let's let go of our next mirage before we get "there." Not that we shouldn't set goals our have dreams, but we should give these to God so that we hold them lightly. God is our Goal. Besides, we don't know what God has for us tomorrow. "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in in business and profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live. And also do this or that.'" (James 4:13-15)

As for past or current disappointments, let's drop them at His feet. Whatever we expected our life to be- let it go and grab Him. Whoever we expected to be- let it go and lay hold of our heavenly Father! It was a mirage of happiness, good only to keep us going, but deathly disappointing when we arrived. The mirage was a false destination, an idol, a false god, so let us throw it into the sea of God's forgiveness.

Give Yourself to Him with all your heart, with fervent prayer. And ask that He might become your all, your Oasis on the way to your eternal home which Christ has gone ahead to prepare for you.

"When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the LORD will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." (Isaiah 41:17-18)