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Going through the desert to the Dead Sea |
Jesus ate nothing during those days and he was very hungry. If you havent eaten for 40 days and are hungry you are open to visions, to the spiritual, both the divine and the demonic. In our own lives we face similar choices. We may feel we have entered a desert in our lives. A time of hunger, thirst, dryness. We may choose to fast and pray to give us a clarity. You may choose to go into a desert or be driven there. For many people in our society today there is no choice. They are in a wilderness. Its a common experience not just something that happened 2000 years ago. When things go wrong, sickness, worries, the loneliness of wilderness is close to us. We sense beasts.We will be tempted to make the wrong choices and those choices will make life easier but not ultimately be the right decision for our well being or society's. Being in a desert is a time of polarisation. In the desert we experience and recognise evil more keenly. We doubt who we are and what we are doing. The powers of darkness test our faith. The wilderness is a place of horror, loneliness. But we are not alone. We will be entertained by angels who will come as real people who we can lean on to sustain and affirm us in the wilderness. Angels will be with us and the desert time will pass.