“That new car smell”

Earlier this month, when the lease on our current vehicle was at an end, we leased a new car. One of the best things about a new car, for me, is ‘that new car smell’. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that THIS new car lacked ‘that new car smell’! How could that be???

And so the first week went. Then one day, the temperature outside rose from the -25 it had been to 0 and above. That was the first miracle. And the second one was that suddenly that wonderful ‘new car smell’ was evident! YEAH!!! AND it lasted for all of 48 hours before the temperatures plummeted again. I’m guessing we never acquired a new car during the winter months before, or it we did, it was a different kind of winter from this year’s.

Well, this happened coincidentally near the beginning of Lent and so I was also hearing the story of the temptation of Jesus for 40 days in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13).

This got me thinking about my own ‘wilderness experiences’. Those wilderness experiences were so very like the lack of ‘that new car smell’ in that I was living in a world that was lacking something essential and expected. My interior life was grey and bland, whatever the outside looked like. And while I know what caused ‘that new car smell’ to come back and to disappear again, I can’t explain my wilderness experiences away that easily. I believe that most of us, from time to time, have these experiences and that they are necessary for our spiritual growth.

They can be summed up for me by a lack of direction, by feeling pulled in many different directions simultaneously, by having a myriad of possibilities before me without any one in particular calling to me. A wilderness experience is, in a way, a coming of age. It is a time when we have to confront the various possibilities before us, and it is only when we decided which way is the ‘right’ way for us, that we can move on. When I focus on one option, finding energy and passion in it, then I am able to move forward. Suddenly life has both meaning and colour again.

'That new car smell' required warmer temperatures to become noticeable but required no action on my part! Leaving behind the wilderness experience, however, needed me to pick the path. When I picked the wrong path, it would lead back into the wilderness, much like the falling temperatures removed 'that new car smell' from our vehicle.I had to come to a realization, either consciously or unconsciously, about where my passion lay; about which road I needed to follow to feel truly alive.

In looking back over my wilderness experiences I can see what they taught me. What have your wilderness experiences taught you?

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