Eremos is an ancient Greek word meaning “a quiet place” often used to describe a desolate wilderness where one might reckon with God.  It is a void, a solitude, a place of rawness and silence.  This is where Jesus met the devil and where he talked with his Father.

Eremos is the wildest places in our heart— in times of desperation we wander into our personal wilderness and scream into the void, searching for answers to pains we cannot handle.  There are aching holes in our hearts where love used to be.

But here we are refined by the silence; the gentle whisper amidst the hurricane.  The searing solitude has things to teach us if we are willing to spend some time here in the wilderness.  We are not the first ones here, and we will not be the last.  And when we let the deafening silence turn into a depth of peace, we will be gently carried home again.

“How quiet it was

In this great wilderness.

The devil was there,

But so was the Spirit.

For a moment I saw Him

And in these great drafts of space

I was gently carried home.”