The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert...
The people of the Old Testament thought of the desert as a
place of chaos, a fearful place to enter.
When the Israelites left Egypt, they spent forty years in the
desert. The prophet Elijah also spent
forty days in the desert after fleeing from the wrath of Jezebel. The desert is a forbidding and inhospitable
place, a place of wildness and isolation and exile into which few venture
willingly.
Yet that is precisely what we are called to do during
Lent: to let the Spirit draw us into the desert spaces of our
daily lives, so that we can explore our own emptiness, those places where we
have removed ourselves from a fulfilling relationship with God. Lent is our journey through exile, back
toward God. It is a time of purification
and preparation, a time of exploration of our most intimate struggles and
temptations. It is not an easy time, but
it can be a very fulfilling time, spiritually, if we are honest with ourselves
and open to all of its challenges.
Most importantly, the beautiful thing about this journey is
that we never make it alone: Jesus is
there every step of the way, leading us
back to God through the desert, back to right relationship, back to God’s loving kindness, goodness, and compassion, so that we might be fully
prepared for His Rising at Easter.
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