Why The Spirit?
Have you ever experienced a “before-and-after moment”? A moment when “the penny dropped”? When the “scales fell off”? These idioms describe moments when something abstract becomes real; when something hypothetical becomes concrete.
I dated Rebecca for five years and was engaged for a year and a half. On our wedding day, we became actually united in Holy Matrimony before God and the Church. But what I remember most was the way I felt when the two of us got in the car after the reception and finally drove away together. All the stress, all the noise, all the people faded away and as the peace and quiet enveloped us, I felt the blessing and reality of “us” wash over me. It wasn’t aspirational anymore. It was reality and I felt it. It is a very special memory.
And I recall when we had our first child, Talia. 9 months of pregnancy with deep reading of “What to Expect When You're Expecting,” more pillows in bed, Lamaze classes, trying out combinations of names. The moment of birth, though, was unlike anything I could have ever anticipated. We were purposely unaware of her gender, so we didn’t know whether we would have a boy or girl. As I tell Talia every birthday, it was the best moment of my life. As she was born, the midwife had me stand next to her and deliver Talia. Frankly, I don’t really remember anyone else in the room but me, Talia, and Becca. She was my daughter, I was her father; it was the blessing and reality of “us.” It was reality and I felt it.
And in both of these moments, the impact was not temporary; the reality of “us” continues to unfold as the journey of love, change, seeking, and finding continues.
In his book “Gentle and Lowly,” Dane Ortlund says: “The Spirit’s role is to turn our postcard apprehensions of Christ’s great heart of longing affection for us into an experience of sitting on the beach...enjoying the actual experience.” He goes on to say, “...he does it ten thousand times thereafter as we continue through sin, folly, or boredom to drift from the felt experience of his heart.”
This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, the feast commemorating the descent and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Messiah. It is He who turns our postcard apprehensions of Christ’s great heart into a felt experience, a living reality with ten thousand reminders. Have you experienced the Holy Spirit in your life this way?
