Friday, while I was driving back home from work in the car, the Spirit came to me. Now, do not misunderstand me. I am still Lutheran. I have not become Pentecostal on you. We are not going to start rolling down the aisle or anything. Even so, the Spirit of God did come to me in the car.
I was about a quarter of the way home when I started to get hot. Reaching out to turn on the air conditioning I discovered that it had not survived through the winter. Sweat started pouring down my forehead and I resorted to manual air conditioning: rolling down the windows. But, that was not helping.
I already was not in the best of moods. I was already feeling orphaned by God and not allowing me the grace of cool air was just the cherry on top of the Sunday. I was worried about oil prices. We all know the truth. Experience tells us that prices are not going to go down. They are simply going to continue upward, causing families in the area to make hard choices; “Should I pay the electric bills or should I buy gasoline to go to work? Where are you God? Why are you not fixing this?
Also on my mind was the food shortage. People are rioting in places like Africa and Haiti because the poor do not have enough money to cover the rising cost of food. And again I ask, “Where are you God? Why are you not fixing this?”
By now the sweat was collecting around my neck and I swear I could see the heat emanating from the ground. This caused me to start worrying about the greenhouse effect on the earth. I have children and I want more. I want them to have an earth to live on when I am gone. Where are you God? Why are you not here with us fixing this? Have you left us to struggle on our own? Have you left us to fend for ourselves? Are we orphaned?
Here is one observation that I have made: whenever I start feeling orphaned, I start to turn inward. I start to worry only about protecting myself. This is an outlook of fear.
The outlook of fear causes me to think that I must plant a garden, just in case the food shortage rises to epidemic proportions. Of course, I have never planted a garden before, but this just may be the time to start. The outlook of fear causes people to go out and stock up on rice though we are assured that there is no shortage of food in the US. I even know a father and mother who have inviting their entire family to come back home and live with them in their four bedroom house. I am not talking about inviting just their children back into the home. I am talking about inviting their children, the children’s spouses, grandchildren, and pets all to come home, hole up in the bunker of their four bedroom home with stocked canned food, and start a beautiful experiment in family harmony.
Even the richest of us worry and slip into this outlook of fear. Ted Turner, one of the richest men in the world who has billions to his name and millions in pocket money, told reporter John Stossel that he does not give away more of his money because he is worried that he will not have enough for retirement.
An outlook of fear causes our sight to be myopic. We are not able to see beyond our own needs. It causes us to fail to see and to love the neighbor in need right next to us.
So, that was the mental state that I was in while I was driving, one of those worrying, self-absorbed moods. The heat was not helping my mood. By this point, I had sweat marks under my armpits. I never get sweat marks under my armpits. I reached down and turned the fan up to full blast. Even that did not help. In fact, it seemed to make things worse. If I would have taken the time to look just to the left of the fan knob, I would have noticed an important detail which would have explained why this April day in cool Pennsylvania was so hot: the heat was turned up to high. But, I did not notice. Instead, my delirious mind took me into the memory of a sweltering trip I took into the deep south. It was at that point that the Spirit moved me.
On that trip, I remember staring out the window through the humidity and seeing the impoverished houses. Just beyond the impoverished houses I would see a church. And beyond the church I would see more impoverished people and houses. Then I would see yet another church, and so it went. At that time I thought to myself, “Wow, what a great opportunity for ministry! What a great opportunity to really make an impact on someone’s life.”
And, while that memory was going through my mind, something happened to me; the Spirit, dwelling within me, opened my eyes to see the homes and the people along my daily route as if for the first time. I saw a rundown house and thought to myself, “I wonder if anyone there needs help?” I saw a woman sitting on her lawn crying. I didn’t stop, though I should have, but at least I noticed her. “I wonder if she needs any help?” I saw all of these things as if for the first time and instantly the Spirit had reversed me from an outlook of fear to an outlook of love. An insatiable need to minister to those around started to take hold. I had not been orphaned. God’s Spirit was present within me; I had just forgotten to seek.
That day the Spirit was my encourager. That is what it means in Greek by the way. The Greek word for Spirit is “Paraklete.” It is more than just a fun word which can spawn many puns such as: When God sent the Spirit to Jesus in the form of a bird it was not in the form of a dove, it was in the form of a tiny chirping paraklete. What is on the bottom of a track star’s shoes: a parakletes. Where is a drum kit when you need one? Enough with the puns, “paraklete” means, "exhorter," "comforter," "entreater," "advocate," "counselor," and most importantly, "encourager." I have been encouraged by other faithful teachers to think of “paraklete” as primarily meaning “encourager.”
This title certainly fits what happened to me that day. The Spirit encouraged me to see what had been right in front of my face for years; people in need of love. I was brought into a life of Jesus’ command: love one another as I have first loved you. The Spirit gave me the eye opening gift of an outlook of love.
My story is certainly not new. The Spirit has been present and at work for many years. A few years ago, a business man from Cairo was encouraged to have an outlook of love. On his commute by train to the business district of Cairo, a man saw for the first time what resided out the windows of the train between his beautiful home and his business office: a huge slum, miles in length. “How had I ever missed it?” he thought to himself. Because the Spirit gave this man an outlook of love, hundreds of people in that slum now have fresh drinking water. The Spirit had not forgotten either the man nor the people in the slum. The Spirit was present, waiting for the right time to give the gift of an outlook of love.
Some two thousand years ago, Jesus assured us that we would never be orphaned when he gave the gift of the Spirit. We are not orphaned. We are not forgotten. We do not have to worry and live in a state of fear. God is right there in the pain, frustration, and the suffering. God is not afraid to be with the hungry. God is not afraid of execution. God is not afraid of death on a cross. God’s Spirit is not afraid. The Spirit is present with us, even in our suffering.
The Spirit is a real gift when trapped in an outlook of fear. Our encourager is present in both our joys and our sufferings, giving us the gift of an outlook of love. And, when we are encouraged, we can be sent as encouragers. And, the Spirit will find home in still more people.
No comments:
Post a Comment