"Going Out Is Really Going In"
A Camping Devotional (John Muir series)
"Going Out Is Really Going In"
Muir understood something counterintuitive: when you leave civilization and go into wilderness, you're actually going deeper inward. You're not escaping yourself – you're meeting yourself. You're not running away from reality – you're encountering it. You're not leaving your problems behind – you're getting clarity about them.
This was Muir's paradox. Most people think wilderness is an escape from real life. Muir knew it was the place where real life becomes visible. In the city, surrounded by human constructions and distractions, you can avoid your own soul. In wilderness, there's nowhere to hide. You're alone with yourself and with creation, and in that solitude, truth emerges.
Muir's faith deepened in wilderness not because he was running from doubt, but because wilderness forced honest confrontation with what he actually believed. The mountains didn't let him coast on inherited religion or cultural Christianity. They asked: do you actually believe this? Is this real? Who is God really?
This is why camping – even a weekend in a tent – can be spiritually transformative. You can't maintain your persona when you're tired, dirty, and stripped of the usual distractions. You can't pretend everything's fine. You can't hide behind busyness. Going out becomes going in.
Psalm 142:1-3 says: "I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord and plead for mercy. I pour out before him my trouble; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who knows my way."
Notice the movement: from crying aloud to pouring out trouble to admitting that you need help. In solitude and silence – which wilderness provides – you can actually be honest with God. You can stop performing and start being.
Proverbs 20:5 says: "The purposes of a person's heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out."
Your own heart is mysterious to you. What you really believe, what you really want, what you're really running from – these aren't obvious. You need time and stillness to draw them out. Wilderness provides that.
Matthew 14:23 says: "After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone."
Jesus regularly went away to be alone, to pray, to be in wilderness. Not because prayer doesn't work in the city, but because solitude clarifies. It deepens. It forces honesty.
Tomorrow's Practice: Find a place where you can be completely alone for at least thirty minutes – no phone, no distractions, no other people. Sit quietly and ask yourself: Who am I really? What do I actually believe? What am I avoiding? What truth is trying to emerge? Don't edit your answers. Just be honest.
Reflection Question: What truths about yourself or your spiritual life are you avoiding in your normal busy life that wilderness or solitude might force you to confront?