Tag Archives: holy spirit

Faith

These Times They Are A’changing

My son turned 5 this week.

One of my favorite things is to drag out the celebration over several days, rather than limiting it to one day. As we have been going about his celebration, I noticed that my perception has begun to shift. 4-years-old is closer to being a toddler whereas 5-years-old is closer to being a school-aged boy. It’s not that I thought of my son as a baby, but there was a shift in his stage-of-life and I was beginning to feel it too. My perception of him and of our context of life is changing.

Perception is a funny thing. It is limited by your senses. It is limited by your understanding. It is limited by your frame-of-reference or context.

And yet we so often live as if our perceptions are facts. Immutable, indisputable facts.

It’s almost as if we are floating along a river that has looked the same and acted the same for so long that we assume that this is the nature of the river. But then the river changes. The terrain is altered, the current shifts, and we find ourselves on the same, yet totally different river.

And when this new context of our river is fixed for long-enough and we adapt to this new nature of our river, we are back to thinking that now we really know it. When we thought we knew it before, it was just because we were younger and less wise. Now we know better.

We have fallen back into the trap of perception.

What happens when the nature of the river changes once again? Maybe even throws in a waterfall that we have to go over and be tumbled about in before we settle into a momentary serenity.

Can we find a way to allow our perceptions to be fixed enough that we can succeed in our current situation and still be flexible enough to adapt to the changes that are definitely coming?

I believe that answer lies in our limitedness.

In our limitations, we will have a difficult task of finding balance. Of grasping the context at-hand in such a way as to thrive in it. And then being prepared and flexible enough to shift with the changes that threaten our reality. And yet, how can we overcome limitations while still limited?

Now, any church-going believer knows that when a spiritual question is posed that you can answer “Jesus” and be right 99% of the time. This time is no different.

Jesus is what sets us free from our limitations while we are still stuck in our limitedness.

By giving us His Spirit to dwell within us, Jesus gave us that which enables us to reach beyond our humanness and not only grasp, but live by the Spirit.

In our humanness, there is a veil that rests over our perceptions and our understanding. “…whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away,” (2 Corinthians 3:17b, NIV).

In our humanness, we are only able to see, experience, and know what our humanness enables us to perceive. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned,” (1 Corinthians 2:14, NIV).

If we want to strike that balance between thriving in our current context and being ready to shift to the next without getting stuck or lost in the shift, we must cling to the Spirit. We must allow the Spirit to lead us because it is only with Him that our perceptions and understanding are opened up. The Spirit must navigate us through our river – all the aspects of the ever-changing nature of our river.

It is by the Spirit that the veil over our eyes is removed and we can see and know more.

It is by the Spirit that we are able to discern the things of God.

It is by the Spirit that I can shift from having a son closer to toddler-hood to a son closer to child-hood without getting lost or miserable in the process. I can see my son, my motherhood, our current and upcoming stages of life and know that we will not only thrive in this one, but transition to the next with an ease and grace that allows us to thrive there too.

Perception is a funny thing. Good thing we have the All-Powerful and All-Knowing at the helm.

Faith

Just Breathe

Take a breath.

A deep breath.

Draw the air in through your nose and bring it down into your belly space, expanding it like a balloon.

Now let it out slowly.

Like, super slow.

That breath is life.

That breath is a gift.

Your next one is not guaranteed.

Breathing is something that we do without thinking. It is a simple in and out exchange of air in our lungs. We usually don’t pay much attention to it unless we are somehow deprived of it.

Yet breathing is something that we can control, to a certain extent. We can choose to hold it, release it, restrict it, free it, make it shallow, make it deep, make it fast, make it slow, make it quiet, or make it noisy. We have some choice in what we do with that little gift of life we receive every few seconds or so.

Even down to our very breath, God instilled in us a choice of what to do with the life we have been given. We get to choose what we do with our breath, with our life, and with our connection to God. God is in our breath because life is in our breath and God is life.

But, as believers, we have also been given a deeper kind of breath – the breath of the Holy Spirit. In Hebrew, the word ‘ruach’ is translated as breath and as spirit. The Spirit of God is Ruach Elohim, so it could also be translated the Breath of God. With this different sort of breath, comes a different sort of life. Everlasting Life.

Take that breath again.

Draw it in nice and slow through your nose, all the way down to that belly space.

Feel the fullness of that breath.

Now let it out slowly.

Feel the hollowness without it.

You have received the breath of life for your body and you have received the Breath of Life for your spirit. You have a choice about what you will do with your breath, with your life, with your spirit. Will you hold it, release it, restrict it, free it, make it shallow, make it deep, make it fast, make it slow, make it quiet, or make it noisy?

Savor your next breath. Find the life inside of it. Feel God inside of it. Connect to the Ruach Elohim within it.

It reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite movies of all time, “A Walk to Remember”. I know it’s a Mandy Moore film, but it’s based on a Nicholas Sparks book so it’s good. She plays a Christian girl dating a boy that goes to church with his mother, but doesn’t yet believe in God for himself. My favorite scene is when he asks her how she can believe.

She says, “It’s like the wind. I can’t see it, but I can feel it.”

Ruach is sometimes translated as wind, too. It is air and spirit in motion. Don’t we create a kind of internal wind when we breathe? So, that’s how I picture the relationship that I have with the Holy Spirit. It’s like a wind that I create inside of me. I can’t see it, but I can feel it.

I, for one, choose to take my breath of life and make it deep and noisy and free. I choose to draw it out and experience as much of it as I can.

What will you do with the gift that is your next breath?

Faith, General

The Only Ghost That’s Real

Growing up, whenever kids would gather together to tell ghost stories, there was always this girl that would say, “The only ghost that’s real is the Holy Ghost. And it’s okay because he’s good.”

I don’t know if ghosts are real or not, but she was right, the Holy Ghost is good. He is good because he is our connection to the Father. Most people don’t understand what role in the Trinity he actually plays, let alone what significance he holds for their faith walk. But, the truth is that he means everything to our faith walk.

Jesus described the Holy Spirit as an Advocate, a Counselor, and a Guide. He said that it was for our good that he ascended to heaven so that the Spirit could come to us. This is the very Spirit of God dwelling inside of us; here to help by advocating, counseling, guiding, and growing us. Without the Holy Spirit, our faith walk would meander. We’d get lost among the bracken and the brambles. We’d be without a spiritual light in the world, left in the dark to stumble over things we cannot see.

The Holy Spirit is God within us, our own divine spark to light our paths. Sometimes we don’t give the Holy Spirit credit for the light we see or we ignore the light that is there. More often than not though, we just get frustrated with the amount of light we are given. We want a big spotlight that illuminates the whole pathway so we know what to expect rather than the quarter-mile or so that we are able to see.  But, that’s not how a guide operates.

A guide is supposed to accompany you on a journey, not give you a map and wish you luck. A guide points out both wonderful things to see and dangers to avoid. He tells you what is coming up in the immediate future, but doesn’t bog you down with all the steps between your present location and your eventual destination. If you were given all the steps at once (if you had that big spotlight), you would either become intimidated by what’s coming or find a shortcut and bypass the preparatory experiences that make you ready for the final destination. The Holy Spirit is your guide. How are you at trusting him as such?

I know that it can be tricky to follow a Ghost, but when you look for him you will find him. He is right there inside of you. He wants to guide you into all truth, to guide you to the Father. He wants to show you how to live life to the fullest; pointing out all the good things that life has to offer. Just be ready for the preparatory steps required to get to those good things. Keep trusting your Ghost-guide. This is one Ghost that will not disappear on you and will never steer you wrong because this Ghost is good.