DAILY BYTE
‘Friend.’
That’s what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be to us (see John 14.16 MSG). Everything that Jesus revealed God as – the Holy Spirit is. We concluded yesterday that what this means for us is that although the Holy Spirit is way beyond our understanding – because he is God, we can trust him.
Yet, the story of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring in Acts also makes it clear that there is something dangerous and untameable about the Holy Spirit. As Aslan the Lion (the Christ figure in the Narnia Chronicles) is described: ‘he is not tame, but he is good.’ In the same way the Holy Spirit cannot be tamed, bound or constrained by us. The Holy Spirit may move and challenge us to change but remember that we can ALWAYS trust the Holy Spirit – because he is God, and God is good.
Many of us may have read the story of the Holy Spirit falling on the disciples, and we may have felt somewhat uneasy. There’s a lot about that story that we don’t get, a lot we would like explained, but in way it’s good that we feel that way.
For the Church shouldn’t be a safe place!
As Annie Dillard says the Church should issue safety instructions and put seatbelts in the pews. Of course a certain uneasiness would come over us as we are asked to give up captaining our own ships, give over control, hand over the steering wheel, and trust another with our lives. BUT WE CAN TRUST GOD IN THIS!
Certainly, our lives may never be the same, we will be swept up into the unimaginably incredible Gospel adventure, but our lives will always be better, deeper, and more meaningfully lived. Trust that. It won’t be safe, but there will be more hope, more love, more meaning, more life … MORE!
Tim Hansel tells the story of hiking with his son, Zach. The boy in youthful exuberance was running up and down the path around him. Suddenly Tim heard his son yell, ‘Hey Dad! Catch!’ Looking up he saw that Zach had leapt off a small cliff above him and was now plummeting to the ground. Tim managed to twist his body in such a way so as to get beneath his son, but Zach’s impetus sent them both crashing to the ground. When he finally managed to catch his breath, Tim yelled, ‘Zach! Give me one good reason you would do a thing like that!’
‘Sure,’ Zach replied, ‘Cos you’re my dad’.
God is a mystery it’s true. There is a very real sense in which we need to live in holy awe of his power, but he is still our Father. And we are his beloved children. So take a risk, jump out in trusting faith into God’s arms and encounter the challenging wonders of the Holy Spirit mystery.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O God, you are not ‘tame’, but you are safe. We give thanks that we can ultimately trust you in all things. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and sweep our lives up into that unimaginably incredible Gospel adventure. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Acts 2. 1 8. 11 12 (The Message)
When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. There were many Jews staying in
