1^st Sunday of Lent, C        February 25, 2007

Few of us have ever been alone in a desert.  I have often hiked in the desert, but always with someone else.  Yet, Jesus went into the desert alone.  The desert is mostly empty and silent.  Being in such a place is an excellent way to get focused without distractions.  Like Jesus, we, too, occasionally need that kind of voluntary sensory deprivation in order to focus on our relationship with God in prayer.  For most people today, being alone without major sensory stimulation is terrifying.  Yet, we each have to confront that fear head on if we want to experience any meaningful spiritual growth.  Even a small partial deprivation is helpful, like on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent, when we avoid getting full of food and eating meat in order to experience God more deeply.

Lots of things can happen to us at these times, some of them challenging.  Indeed, it is in the desert of voluntary deprivation that temptation looms the most attractive.  I know I can go weeks or months without craving a hamburger.  But it never fails.  On Ash Wednesday I can’t get a burger out of my mind.  So, it’s no surprise that Jesus was confronted with the three big temptations while he was alone and without distractions in the desert.

What were they?  Turn this stone into bread.  This is the temptation to live for material gain.  The second temptation was to jump off the high platform of the temple in Jerusalem without getting hurt.  This is the temptation to live to become famous.  Jesus’ third temptation was to control all the kingdoms in the world.  This is the temptation to live for power over others.  Yes, material gain, fame, and power are still very tempting.  To succumb to them often results in an addiction.

“Addiction” is hard word - it conjures up horrifying images of life-threatening dependence on some drug that robs us of our ability to control our lives.

But the fact is that every one of us struggles with addiction: the things we cannot imagine living without.  It may be eating, shopping, blaming.  It may be always needing to tell others what to do. We may be addicted to getting compliments, so that everything we do has that goal, get a compliment.    Even taking care of other people can be an out of control addiction.  We can be addicted to the latest health fad, the newest model car, or the hottest fashions.  Our addiction may be our obsession with our computer or cell phone, our favorite music, or our golf clubs.  We are all addicted to habits, substances or surroundings that comfort us and provide a refuge for us, but unfortunately also hinder our growing closer to God.

At some point in our lives we will all find ourselves alone in some kind of desert or wilderness, deprived of our addictions.  At that point we will experience an emptiness within us that our addiction will not fill.  We are suddenly exposed, like someone addicted to painkillers whose prescriptions have just run out.  It is hard.  It is awful.  But to become fully human, we need to encounter the world without our own anesthesia, to find out what life is like with no comfort but God.

That may be the simplest definition of addiction: anything we use to fill the empty place inside us that belongs to God alone.

The season of Lent calls us to leave behind our addictions and pacifiers, our comfort food and toys, and journey to the desert, to be alone with nothing but God.  It is a time to take a hard look at the "addictions" that control us and regain control of our time and values so that we may become the man or woman God created us to be.

May you find “desert time" alone with God over the next 40 days.  Leave behind your addictions and obsessions.  Refill your souls and spirits with the wisdom and grace of the God who constantly seeks you out and calls you back to him.