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8/4/2011
A Spring In The Desert
Matthew 4: 211
Sometimes the demands of our lives drive us to a point of distraction and tension. Our cares, concerns
and struggles can become so overwhelming and draining that we have to dig into our deepest selves and
spiritual resources in order to “keep things level”.
As I sit at my desk, my thoughts go back my last reflection “A Dry Thirsty Land” and the response of
Sis. Jillian John to that latest offering of “The Thought Today”. As I work through my spiritual
drought this morning, I remember her telling me, by email, that the Caribbean Lenten Booklet 2011,
had as its theme “Springs In The Desert”. She also offered me a copy of it. I declined her offer since I
already had a copy.
As I write this reflection I look out the windows of my office to the hills around Kingstown and I noted
the amount of land being tilled by farmers from the suburbs of Kingstown. As I looked up to the hills, I
suddenly realised that the gentlest of showers had started to fall. I smiled wryly and thought “Lord, You
always give me rain: this sign of gently falling rain (which starts suddenly then passes away almost as
suddenly as it began) as a spring in my deserts and an affirmation that all will be well”.
With this affirmation in my spirit, I was taken back to the time in Matthew's Gospel when Jesus was
baptised by John. The heavens were opened unto to him, the Spirit of God descended on him as a dove
and a voice from heaven announced, (nay) affirmed, that Jesus was God's Beloved Son.
Matthew does not waste time in his narrative. He takes us straightaway to the experience which Jesus
had after fasting forty days and forty nights. Jesus was literally hungry and maybe vulnerable to the
promptings of the devil. How often has it been that our various temptations come to us, not in moments
of joys and pleasures but at times of deepest distress? At these agonising times we become susceptible
to many doubts about our faith in God and his power to carry us through even the deepest moments of
tribulation and pain.
At these times, like Jesus, how often are we challenged and moved to: turn our stony conditions into
physical bread; poise recklessly on various pinnacles to throw ourselves off expecting (nay demanding)
that the salvation of God be provided; or harbour aspirations of conquering the worlds of life and
business of our day? How often do we find instead, our own “spring in the desert” which, grounded in
an abiding faith in God, allows us to say (even when “our chips are down”) “I will not be moved by the
wiles of the tempter”?
Today
Ashley R Cain
(As you care, share The Thought Today)