It includes his famous letter from a Birmingham jail, which to me is the finest and most moving thing he ever wrote. Some ministers and bishops suggested he was moving too quickly, that his actions were untimely. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Immediately the spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. Immediately is an important word because in life's arithmetic, when we add a year to those we have already lived, we subtract a year from those remaining to be lived.
Every addition is also a subtraction.
Perhaps that is why Mark portrays Jesus as coming into our lives breathless, fast-paced and intrusive. A few lines soon are better than a three-decker novel a month hence. We wait too long to show kindness. We wait too long to speak a word of forgiveness. We wait too long to offer comfort, to express thanks, to offer encouragement.