​27. Calling in the Wilderness

John the Baptist.

What a wonderful way to live. And a wonderful way to go.

Few might say that. Practically nobody, really.

Because I doubt there’d be many willing to exchange their heads for the sake of righteousness.

It’s John’s doubt that resonates with me. Here’s the very one Isaiah prophesies hundreds of years before his birth, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”

The one who prepared our hearts and minds for Jesus.

He did so with the taste of locusts and honey on his tongue and God’s voice in his ears.

And yet? John still doubted.

While imprisoned, he sent his disciples to confirm that Jesus was the Messiah.

But John’s heart already knew that.

It was his head that gave him so much trouble.

Isn’t that like us though? To stand outside on a dark cold night and see the burning gases above, the roll of clouds encroaching on our space, and that moon. The bright face of something we can’t even touch.

But then deep inside the covers on our beds we think, “Maybe it was just a dream.”

Our hearts beat though. They remind us of the Spirit’s voice within us and our own voices calling in the wilderness all this time.

Make way the path of the Lord.

And then that old familiar flavor of locusts and honey.

It’s worth losing your head over.