Clergy/Leaders' Mail-list No. 0-166

From 'Sunrise Sunset' (HarperCollins/Harper San Francisco), Rowland Croucher's book of daily meditations. Feel free to use or adapt it.

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness... Mark 1:4.

John lived in the desert between the centre of Judea and the Dead Sea. It's one of the most terrible deserts in the world, says William Barclay. 'It is a limestone desert; it looks warped and twisted. It shimmers in the haze of the heat; the limestone rock is hot and blistering and sounds hollow to the feet as if there was some vast furnace underneath. It moves out to the Dead Sea and then descends in dreadful and unscalable precipices down to the level of the sea. In the Old Testament it is sometimes called Jeshimmon, which means The Devastation.'

In this dreary, desolate, forsaken, lonely spot, John communed with his God. He wore a garment woven of camel's hair, and a leather belt. And he ate locusts and wild honey (providing a balanced diet of protein and carbohydrate, according to a diet expert!).

Lord, the lesson here for me may be to strip my life sometimes (or for a longer time) of all the clutter of the years, and get down to basics. I need you, Lord, not material things. I need to know you Lord, not a lot of the stuff I am reading or hearing on the media. I need to know myself, Lord, and this cannot happen until I have got rid of whatever is clogging up my spiritual life. Help! Amen.