The voice from heaven exclaiming 'You are my beloved son. I'm pleased with you.', is replaced by the voice of Satan, ever trying to tempt. And, after the Wilderness, a changing of the guard. John is arrested. Jesus picks up the prophetic torch and begins his public ministry. The gospel of Mark startles us with its speed. You feel that Jesus is sent into the wilderness still wet from the waters of baptism. And that the time in the wilderness passes in the blink of an eye. Everything in Mark's gospel is in a bit of a hurry. Mark's favourite word seems to be "immediately"! Yet even in his hurried pace Mark tells us that God saw to it that Jesus took time first to get his act together. Jesus is sent into the Wilderness. And so often, we jump to thoughts of temptation, testing and suffering. But wait. Go back. Before he's driven out - and it's the same word in the Greek that's used later when referring to driving out demons - before he's driven out, look what has just happened.. Before the Wilderness - the water and the affirmation from heaven - 'I love you. You are loved. I'm so proud of you.' The words that refresh in the dry dust and heat of the desert. The words that give strength in the testing time. Mark's writing is brief, but in its simplicity, I think it invites us to go deeper into our imaginations and find our own desert and see what lurks there. The journey we begin this Lent, may include reflecting on those broken, scarred and raw places of Wilderness that we've experienced over this last year - places of sorrow, sickness and despair. The journey may mean sifting through issues of who we are, and what really matters - exploring our hunger, yearning and inner most longing. It may be about taking time to grieve over lost love, missed opportunities, those things left undone, the things done that we wish we hadn't.. It's a time where, if we allow ourselves to become still, and face our aching nakedness, we may perhaps find comfort for our souls. But wait. Go back. Before the Wilderness . remember - you are loved, loved by the One who set the rainbow in the sky as a sign to Noah, and for all of us. It's a strange time, Lent. It gets a bit of a negative press. 'Mustn't do this!', 'Can't do that!' 'No joy allowed!' 'Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder.' Yet…. I like Lent. To me, it's the time when we can give ourselves permission to withdraw from the relentless pace of our day to day lives and where God says - 'Stop. Take stock. Be refreshed.' It's our time to become explorers - journeying into the wilderness of the desert, of the ocean of the heart. It's our time to take