I have been taking some days to cogitate on things. I have a couple more Bois Blanc Island stories to share but I needed to clear my mind of its tangledness. I do not believe that “tangledness” is actually a word but do you ever just get to that place where you think you’re living into your faith and all of a sudden you’re surrounded by ties that bind us so we can’t seem to move?
Sometimes I find myself confounded and not as close to God as I want to be. It’s kind of a lonely spot to be sometimes but that doesn’t mean it’s always a bad spot. Those times of tangledness help you discern where you are and where your faith is. At times, I think my faith and I are definitely not on the same page. But I have discovered if I let myself lean in long enough, let the discomfort grow and open myself – something does happen.
In this case, finally something in all that faithfulmess (misspelling intended) wafted out for me to latch onto and go with.
My thoughts became full of the Holy Spirit. I don’t know why. So I began to read things about the Holy Spirit online and check out our United Methodist site for thoughts on the matter.
I wondered first where is the Holy Spirit inside of me. One site said that scripture says it’s in our belly. Hmmmm, I thought, well, our stomachs are often very central to us as human beings. But does the Holy Spirit reside there? Don’t know. I also found that it is thought to reside beside us, within us, upon us and filling us. Interesting – it could be kind of all around us and in us all the time. This thought could even still allow for the Holy Spirit to reside in our bellies. Hmmmm, don’t know.
The United Methodist website based on John Wesley’s long struggle with understanding the nature of the Holy Spirit says that it resides in our hearts. The doctrine also suggests that while the Holy Spirit working within us can be a very intense personal experience providing us with guidance comfort and strength; it can be equally as powerful at work in our faith as a community.
So here I am spending all this time trying to understand my faithfulmess, remaining stationary – or so I thought! Seeming a little lonely – or so I thought! When all the sources tapped tell me the Holy Spirit is right inside ME, or at least all around me, like ALL THE TIME!
Well, this is simply amazing and wondrous, because in our daily lives as we find ourselves confounded and tangled we forget about the threesome – yep, I’m talking the Trinity, the three in one! God the father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
We think God goes far away but how can he? Really, how can that ever be? We got the Holy Spirit forever with us as Christians. If those 3 are one then how can God or Jesus, Christ be gone? In all rationale thought it’s impossible. Simply impossible!
So I sit in my tanglednessly faithfulmess, and the Holy Spirit stirs and wafts it’s way in me and before me. I feel the pull before I know what it is – there is something moving my heart and mind forward when I can’t even fathom what I’m doing – there is something that warms my heart enough so that I actually move and realize that the tangledness of things is not so bad as I was certain it was. Something is happening, people, and that something is a living growing FAITH IN GOD!
Don’t underestimate that Holy Spirit folks! It’s keeping the home fires going and the fresh winds of grace and understanding blowing. When you have time to meditate on the Holy Spirit moving in your life, listen to the song attached to today’s devotion, ‘Holy Spirit You Are Welcome Here.’Open yourself and let the entanglements fall away and let the Holy Spirit reveal a message or maybe even a reassurance to you, or move your heart to a place it hasn’t been before, or let your mind ponder something you never even considered.
Holy Spirit, you are indeed ever welcome here.
~Shauna Weil