“Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness” (Isaiah‬ ‭43:19‬ ‭CEB‬‬).

Every so often, something peculiar happens at seminary. A student who starts off fired up for Jesus and eager to be trained for ministerial work winds up having a crisis of faith. Some drop out of school. Others walk away from the church.

This typically happens when things they’d been taught about the Bible their whole lives are called into question—by other Christians! Suddenly, the book that once made them feel close to the Lord leaves them feeling distant and disoriented.

Similarly, but more devastating, the Judahites watched Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple crumble under the weight of Babylon’s military might. In an instant, everything they knew about their faith and identity was deconstructed. It was amid these bleak circumstances that God spoke to them, “Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness.”

Even after everything had fallen apart, the Lord was able to bring the people of Judah home and restore their strength. And the Lord can do the same for the struggling seminarian or anyone else wrestling with doubt. After all, our salvation doesn’t come from a rigid structure but from the living God.

O Lord, please find us in the wilderness and provide us with a path home. Amen.