Early in this new year, I came to Luke 4:1 "And Jesus, full of a Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was guided in the wilderness by the Spirit." (DBH translation). The start of 2022 has not magically delivered us from the wilderness, we're still there. Maybe in some respects we are always there, with a few oases that show up from time to time on the journey. The story continues into what's called the temptation of Jesus. When you're in the wilderness, your hunger and your thirst become very insistent companions. You find yourself looking for ways to appease those desires, and you want to get out! What's so remarkable about Jesus's humanity, is that he is able to resist taking the easy way out. He doesn't opt for the easy options to satisfy human desire, he seems to recognize that navigating the wilderness will mean accepting what he lacks, what he can't finally have; enough power, popularity, personal security that promises satisfaction of our desires. The paradox is that the only thing that will satisfy your desire is accepting that you cannot satisfy your desire - at least not in this lifetime. This is what being guided by the Spirit in the wilderness might mean: that God’s Spirit comforts us in our limitations, empowers us to embrace our lack, and teaches us to honour desire as that which moves us, but doesn't have to rule us. GS