In love with the desert

On the heels of my previous post and the constant processing of my Tracker School experience there is a Wendell Berry quote that has been bouncing around in my head like a pinball.

If change is to come, it will come from the margins,
it was the desert not the temple that gave us the prophets.

In terms of my vocation, I've pondered a time or two about whether I could best be an agent for change in the church... would it be by staying in (pastoral) ministry and all that it entails or someplace completely different than the church setting... or is it really both?

In some manner my experience away from pastoral ministry this past year has served as a kind of desert for me. I mean that in a good way... think the Prophets, John the Baptist, Desert Fathers. My desert/wilderness has enabled me to come alive and see the world in ways that I had missed before.

Simply put, I didn't get that in the temple (think church) I did however find it in the desert/wilderness.