Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song And Praise

On this first Sunday in Lent we intentionally embark on a forty-day journey to the cross.  And every year, on this first Sunday in Lent, we encounter Jesus experiencing forty days in the desert as we begin our forty-day journey.  As Mark tells the story, we find Jesus is driven or pushed into the wilderness.  The gospel writer tells us Jesus has just been baptized by John, an experience in which he saw the sky violently split open and God’s Spirit descend upon him in the form of a gentle dove.  He has just heard God’s voice say to him, “You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love.  You are the pride of my life.”  Then, immediately following this experience the same Spirit that descended upon him as a gentle dove, turns into a dive bomber or mac truck and pushes Jesus out into the wild.  We are not given any hint or clue that Jesus chose to do this of his own volition.  The writer of Mark’s gospel makes it clear that Jesus was forcefully driven or pushed into the wilderness by the Spirit, something outside of