"This is the time of fulfillment."

Lent.

We all have our own way of going through it. Some of us really plan things out, we determine a path we want to walk and a goal we want to reach. Others of us come to it with nothing but our souls, and we walk headstrong into it letting "come what may."

Regardless of our approach, we must enter the desert. Lent is supposed to transform us, or maybe more correctly it is supposed to FORM us.

The interesting thing about our spiritual journeys is that God is never one to show us the goal. Usually, we ask for something, we pray for it, and then God shows us a path to walk down. We, in our human fallibility, think that our end goal is what we want, but we aren't the best arbiters of what is good for us. This means that in the end, the journey takes us right past our want and as we go whizzing by we realize that God has something much better for us.

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel." - Mark 1:12-15

We will be tempted. We battle against those forces set on our destruction. We may not have the luxury of hearing that enough, or ever, but we are. If Jesus was tempted, and we purport to walk as He did, then we should expect to be tempted as well.

During lent, we will be among wild beasts, and we need angels to minister to us. Regardless of how we enter lent, we should know what to expect while we are in the desert. It isn't easy, and it isn't supposed to be either. We have help, we have angels, we have prayer, and fasting is not to make us weaker - it sharpens us.

"This is the time of fulfillment."

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