#37: Lost In Laundry, Found By God

Deserts rarely announce themselves with drama. More often they arrive in the middle of car lines, late-night laundry, missed theme days, and the slow creep of loneliness that somehow grows in our hyper-connected lives. We’re exploring the wilderness as more than a metaphor—naming exhaustion, invisibility, identity shifts, and waiting—and uncovering how those dry places can become preparation, not punishment.

This conversation stays grounded and practical. For moms carrying unseen loads, this episode offers encouragement. We keep returning to identity: you are a daughter of the King, not the sum of unfinished tasks or delayed dreams. The wilderness can be quiet, but it isn’t empty. Springs of grace often sit right beside our fears, waiting to be noticed.

If this resonates, tap follow, share the episode with a friend who needs water for her desert, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find hope here.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Ciao and welcome to Life Out Loud. I am your host, Desiree Melfi Bozo. We are going to use this space to share experiences and help you find lasting, unshakeable, unwavering, unmessable with joy and gratitude. We're going to be throwing around encouragement a little bit like confetti and giving you support to live your very best life.

Naming The Wilderness

Luke 4: Jesus Tested

Why The Wilderness Prepares Us

Defining Modern Wilderness

Exhaustion And Feeling Invisible

Identity Shifts And Loneliness

Waiting And God’s Timing

God Works Deeply In Deserts

Hagar’s Story In Genesis 16

The Spring On The Road To Shur

The God Who Sees Me

Identity Confirmed In Wilderness

Look For Provision And Grace

Closing Blessing And Ways To Support

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Ciao friends. Welcome back to the Life Out Loud Podcast. I'm the creator of this podcast and your host, Desiree Melfi Boat. So this is episode 37, where we are talking about the wilderness. We're in the middle of Lent. What is it, week three of Lent. And sometimes in the middle of the thing, you find yourself in the middle of the thing, and that's what we're going to talk about and unpack today. We are going to pick up. So these wilderness seasons, um, let's just say this. Sometimes these wilderness seasons uh come out of the blue. Sometimes we dive into them, right? But either way, whether we choose them or they choose us, we all face them. And so I want to unpack what that's about and what scripture says about it. Let's dive into Luke chapter four. I'm gonna read, it's a little bit long, but that's fine. I'm gonna read one to thirteen. So this is Jesus in the wilderness when he's tested. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written, Men shall man shall not live on bread alone. The devil led him up to a high place, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, and he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendor. It is, it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will be all yours. Jesus answered, It is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Verse 9, the devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point in the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from there, for it is written, and this is where Satan knows scripture and uses it against us sometimes, because right here he quoted Psalm 91. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully, they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Verse 12, Jesus answered, It is said, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Verse 13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Verse one, something mentioned there is so profound. It says, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There was never a time that Jesus wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay. It's worth noting, though, to be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be filled and obedient. Commentary that I dove down deep into it well with says after he was baptized in the Jordan, he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. Okay. The wilderness wasn't an accident. This commentary that I read broke it down that it was preparation. Wilderness seasons oftentimes are preparing us for something. Major life callings are often preceded by seasons of testing. The wilderness was preparing Jesus for his public ministry. Before the miracles and the crowds and the teachings, there was Jesus in the wilderness. And I think this is really important for us and our own lives because sometimes we find ourselves in seasons of wilderness. And sometimes we don't know why. And so for us, I want to break down what these seasons of wilderness look like because you might be sitting there like, yes, and I also don't know what that means. What do you mean by wilderness? Define that, please. And so we're gonna. So here's a couple few, there's what, seven-ish ways that I jotted down that can be wilderness seasons for us. This podcast, as you know, is about equipping moms uh with practical tools. And so that's what this is about. That's what we're doing. So the first one, uh, wilderness, also worth noting, not always a dramatic crisis. Okay. Wilderness is not always like this big dramatic thing. Sometimes it's like quiet and confusing and lonely. Okay. So it doesn't always uh come in with mass chaos. Sometimes it creeps in really quietly and gets really lonely and really dark. Okay. And I don't mean dark in like a weird way. It just was a descriptor. Okay. Uh so first wilderness season could look like exhaustion. This is caring for kids, caring for spouses, managing a house, helping everyone else, making sure laundry's done and dinner's on the table, and you know, uh, assignments are done, and poster board is purchased for the thing and the dioramas, and we just did a diorama and we grew grass for it. It's a whole thing. I'm digressing. Exhaustion. Okay. Wilderness of exhaustion. Next one is feeling invisible because you're pouring out the meals and the rides and the emotional support and the remembering everything and all the things. And this morning I sent my kid to school and he was in his uniform and he wasn't in comfy cozy day, and it was like a thing. And we drove back home and we got him comfy, closey, cozy clothes. And like remembering all the things can be exhausting. And then sometimes we can be like, uh, am I here still? Am I still a person here uh as mom and wife and all the roles, but like still, I'm like me, right? Asking for a friend. I'm kidding. Uh, but sometimes, real talk, that's how it feels, right? We feel invisible, we feel exhausted. Next one transitions and life stages that shake your identity. Hi, new moms out there. How you doing? Shaking your identity a little bit? Probably. That's what motherhood's supposed to do, right? Uh, how about the moms launching them into the world? That's a real thing. Can't quite wrap my arms around that, but I'm not at that stage yet. If you are, good luck. That's scary, right? Things that shake your identity, the career changes, the moves, the divorce, the caregiving status. All of a sudden you're caring for your parents. What? How the tables turn. Sometimes they end up being seasons of wilderness, the loneliness. There's seasons of loneliness, and that's very real. There's disconnection. We're the most connected generation. I don't even know where my phone is. We're the most connected. I was gonna point to it. Connected generation in all of human history. There's literally never been people that walk the earth that were more connected than us, and loneliness has skyrocketed in our society. It's a thing. It's a thing worth paying attention to. And the other wilderness season we find ourselves in sometimes is a season of waiting when our timeline and the timeline of the good Lord just don't entirely match up for one reason or another. Wilderness seasons take on a ton of faces. And if I didn't cover yours, well, give me enough time, and maybe I would have. But they're all wilderness seasons nonetheless. Scripture is reminding us that in the wilderness, God is often doing his deepest, most profound work. We see it in Luke 4 with Jesus. The Spirit led him there. One of the most powerful examples, I think, in scripture is the story of Hagar. We meet her, we met her in Genesis 16. I think when I talked about Sarah, I mentioned Hagar. Her story is, if you've read it, very intimately intertwined with Abraham and Sarah. They were Abram and Sarai because God hadn't renamed them yet. Hagar was a servant in Abram and Sarai's household. Sarah couldn't become pregnant, so she gave Hagar to Abraham, so Hagar would become pregnant and continue the lineage. Well, she did, and it went from bad to worse. Read the story, you'll understand all of the pieces. Basically, tension poured into the home because, like, how could it not, right? Resentment grew. Sarah treated Hagar harshly, drove her out. Hagar fled into the wilderness. And I want you to imagine this scene for a second. Hagar is out there, she's alone, she's rejected, she's pregnant, she's uncertain about the future and what's gonna happen. And then we see Genesis 16, 7. I'm gonna read it to you. The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert. It was the spring that is beside the road to Shur, S H-U-R. I'm gonna actually read verse 8 too, because it's it's lovely, truly. Uh, and he said, Angel of the Lord said, Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? I have a little note in my Bible that says, The Lord always gently draws us in. He knew where she was, where she came from, he knew where she was going. She didn't run to God, she ran to the wilderness because she was freaked out and didn't know what else to do. But God reached down from heaven and God ran to her. There's more symbolism and meaning in verse seven that I want to break down. So the first thing I want to talk about is near a spring in the desert. So Hagar is in a dry and barren wilderness. Okay. She yet, and she's sitting next to a stream in the desert, a source of provision. I think it's also a nod to Isaiah, right? Foreshadowing. The next thing, and isn't that just like God, right? In our wilderness seasons, of course, he provides the provision because that's what he always does, because he loves us sometimes more than we love ourselves. Also, uh, next thing I want to point out, it was a spring that is beside the road to Sur. And if you know anything about Sure, it was on the way back to Egypt. Egypt was the place of bondage and slavery that she had been brought out of. This is intel for her state of mind. What do we do sometimes when we're in pain? We run back to the familiar. That's what she was doing. She was running back to the familiar, even for her, if it meant pain, because she knew it well. As humans in our brokenness, we do this all the time. We run back to what we know, even if it's not good for us. But, and here's how God works He gets to Hagar before she's too far off. Just like he does the same for us. Before we're too far off, he comes running after us. He meets us when we're running, he meets us when we're confused as all get out, and he meets us when we're going the wrong way. After Hagar's encounter, she names God El Roy, the God who sees me. The well she was beside was Beer Lyroi, the well of the living one who sees me. All of this shows us God sees the overlooked. He sees us in our wilderness seasons, he sees us exhausted and tired and overwhelmed and all the things. He sees us. In Luke 4, 1 to 13, Jesus went into the wilderness to face temptation and it confirmed his identity. Hagar entrusted God in the wilderness and she discovered hers. Both stories show the same truth that the wilderness is often where God reveals who he is, and get this reminds us who we are. Because we forget. Between the meals and the laundry and the forgetting like theme day at school and feeling like a terrible mom and beating ourselves up, God's like, hey, no big deal. Still love you, still see you, still care for you, still offering provision for you. Your kid's not gonna remember it when he's 40. And if he does, well, at least you have an open communication, you can talk about it. Dude, I was doing my best. Right? Maybe this podcast is for me today. I don't know. Uh, the first person in scripture to say God sees me. It wasn't a prophet, and it wasn't a king, it was a pregnant servant woman who was sitting alone in the wilderness. And my loves, if that god way back then, saw her in that wilderness, you better believe that that god today, in today's day and age, sees us exactly right where we are. So look around your life, check out the wilderness seasons, what do you notice? What's happening there? And the next question I want to ask you is where might God be meeting you that you haven't quite noticed before? Maybe it's in grace, maybe it's in his provision. I don't know what it is for you, but he's there and he's working and he's affirming an identity in you as daughter of the king. Not the one who's tired and overwhelmed and and and and but the one who's the daughter of the king, who he's got in the palm of his hand, who he loves more than anything in this world. That's all for today. Yeah, I think that's it for today. That was uh that was a little bit for me, just as much as it was to you. I hope it was a blessing, and as always, uh come back next time. We're gonna throw more of this around like confetti. If you get too close, you're gonna get it on you, but it's cool because it'll probably make it all better.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

So have a fantastic day. Cheers. Thank you for joining me, Desiree Amalfi Bozo, for this episode of Life Out Loud. I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment, tell me what topics you want to talk about, and how you take your coffee. If you enjoyed what you heard, text a friend the link, share it on social media, or if you're interested in becoming a supporter, beep up over to my webpage, lifeoutloud.me, and sponsor a cup of coffee that keeps this podcast fueled. Until next time, sweet listeners.