William J. Elliott - Falling Into the Face of God: Forty Days and Nights in the Judean Desert

Praise for William J. Elliott

If God is holding me, why am I holding on? is the central question Bill Elliott answers in his sanitydefying journey into the Judean desert. After forty days and nights in the place where Jesus wrestled with demons and came home to God, Elliott recounts how he too fell into the Divine. Few stories are as transforming as Falling into the Face of God.

HUGH PRATHER, AUTHOR OFNOTES TO MYSELF

This invaluable record deserves to be a bestseller, not only for its inherent wisdom but also for its clarity and respect for the many ways there are to be and to believe.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, ON TYING ROCKS TO CLOUDS

... an utterly winsome book, one that will win a special place in readers hearts... Its not just the wise and spiritual things his respondents say that make it singits the search that Bill Elliott undertook and his bold idea of finding wisdom by simply asking. By the books end, Elliott is wiser, more spiritual. So will be many of his readers.

BOOKLIST, ON TYING ROCKS TO CLOUDS

A treasury of talks about the treasure of life, the great hidden pearl that is out there right in the open.

BOOK READER, ON TYING ROCKS TO CLOUDS

Falling into the
Face of God

Falling into the
Face of God

Forty Days and Nights in
the Judean Desert

WILLIAM J. ELLIOTT

FALLING INTO THE FACE OF GOD
Copyright 2006 William J. Elliott

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by W Publishing Group, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee 37214.

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan.

Other Scripture references are from the following sources:
The King James Version (KJV); The Message (MSG), copyright 1993. Used by permission of Nav Press Publishing Group; New American Standard Bible (NASB), 1960, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation; the New King James Version (NKJV), copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers; the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT), copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Page Design: Stacy Clark

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Elliott, William, 1959
Falling into the face of God : forty days and nights in the Judean desert /
William J. Elliott.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8499-0071-9
1. Elliott,William, 1959 2. Christian biographyUnited States. 3. Mental health personnelUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
BR1725.E465A3 2006
275.6949083092dc22

2005030488

Printed in the United States of America
06 07 08 09 10 QW 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For those who seek union with God, the
Beloved and Supreme Being.

At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert,
and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted
by Satan. He was with the wild animals,
and angels attended him.

Mark 1:1214

If there is any peace it will come through being,
not having.

Henry Miller

You cannot see My face,
for no man can see Me and live!

God to Moses, Exodus 33:20 NASB

Contemplatives and ascetics of all ages and religions
have sought God in the silence and solitude of the
desert, forest, and mountain.

Mother Teresa

Table of Contents

METSOKEY-DERAGOT HOSTEL
JUDEAN DESERT, ISRAEL

I n early June of 2002, I left the United States and traveled to the locus of my own soul. If one were to look at a map, they would say that my destination was Israel (specifically the Judean desert) and that I had traveled 6,497 miles. But in actuality, I traveled much farther than thatupon a road whose traversing is measured not in miles, but by the deepening of human experience, love, and acceptance; and not by direction (for there is only one directioninward). And whose perilous mountains, cliffs, and valleys were composed not of stone or sand, but of ones own psyche (the most dangerous of the worlds creations).

Youre making a mistake, said Orel, the manager of the Metsokey-Deragot Hostel. Youve got snakes and scorpions out in the desert, and its very hot, and there are so many cliffs where you can fall... so many things that can go wrong, he said, shaking his head in disbelief, and there will be no one to help you if you fall or get bitten by a snake and cant contact us.

Orel was right; I could easily die out in the desert. I knew almost nothing about being in nature. I ventured into nature only occasionallyand that was to play golf. The Metsokey-Deragot Hostel was in the middle of the Judean desert, miles away from any town. And once I ventured out into the desert, I would be miles from Metsokey-Deragot.

I looked over at Yael for some kind of assurance. She was the girlfriend of Tamir, the guide who had found a place for me in the Judean desert. But since he had punctured his eardrum the day before, it was she who would be dropping me off near my destination. Yael wouldnt even look at me. Instead, she looked down at the floor and nodded in agreement with Orel.

I turned away from them and looked out the office window into the desert. At one time the Metsokey-Deragot Hostel had been a kibbutz, started by Jewish hippies. But eventually they realized that nothing would grow here, so they abandoned it, leaving four or five small adobe buildings. It was now a place where tourists occasionally came to spend time in the desert. But anyone who had ever been in the desert (in the way that the desert demanded) knew that this wasnt really the desert. Instead, the desert was still out there, beyond the barbed-wire fence that lay broken and unmended. Beyond the several sets of small hills that distanced one from the safety of others. Beyond the space that opened up just past those same hills, a space so hungry for disturbance or anomaly that it would swallow up any call for help before it reached its recipient. In a science-fiction novel, the Metsokey-Deragot Hostel would be the last space outpost, the place from which the hero or fool sets off as he ventures into the vast unknown.

And the scorpions are nasty, a voice with a British accent said from behind the counter.

I turned to see a wisp of a woman with short, multicolored hair, a pierced nose, and sad, droopy eyes. Her name was Kate.

I picked up a box one day, Kate said, and there were twenty scorpions under it. They scattered. I jumped up and down, but one of the little suckers stung me. If a scorpion gets you in the leg, youll have almighty pain for seven hours. But the legs and arms are the best places to get stung because the lymph nodes can stop the poison from reaching the heart. If you get stung in the throat or chest, the poison goes right to the heart and can give you a heart attack. I even felt my heart shudder a bit when I was stung.