Yesterday former Ultimate Fighting Middleweight Champion Evan Tanner was found dead in the Calif. desert at age 37. Tanner rose to the top of the mixed martial arts world by winning the UFC middleweight title in 2005 reported Jeff Cain, Ken Pishna, and Tom Hamlin of MMM weekly.com.
Apparently Tanner hiked out into the desert on a personal expedition to take part in a sort of cleansing. “I’m not just going out into the desert; I’m going out into the desert to hunt for lost treasure…I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life.”
As I glanced at the heading of this article I was drawn in as I reflected on the necessary equipment it takes to make our expedition and treasure hunting successful in this life. It goes with out saying that the most valuable resource and treasure we could ever possess is found through relationship with Christ. Without relationship with our Creator, we will never be fully equipment for the journey.
And although there are solitary times when we are set aside solely with the Lord, we had better not wonder off in our desert alone and get caught off guard. It is easy to become cavalier and simply live day to day, but if we get careless about maintaining our equipment we could find ourselves out of gas and nourishment, dying in our own desert.
I’ve watched as friends and children have wondered off and gotten lost in their own deserts, thirsty and so disoriented that they couldn’t make their way back. If it weren’t for the kindness of the Lord who brings us to repentance, leaving the pack to seek out even one lost sheep, any of us could easily wonder off and wind up missing in action.
There is a warning for us in this sad story. Don’t leave home without the equipment. When we leave our house we wouldn’t go off without our license or wallet, so we need to make sure that we aren’t negligent in wondering off without all of the equipment we truly need to possess.
We are told in Ephesians 6 to take up the full armor of God, so that we may be able to resist evil- to arm ourselves with the truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, cover our feet and the places we walk with the gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith to extinguish all flaming missiles hurled our way, put on the helmet and assurance of our salvation and take up the sword of the Spirit, the word of God in which to fight. We are exhorted to pray at all times in the Spirit, to be alert with perseverance. In having done all this to resist evil, we are to stand firm knowing that we will be rescued from our deserts.
