Wild and Free

Today is known in the Christian church as Pentecost Sunday. It's a day when we remember and celebrate the first infusion of the Holy Spirit to believers after the death and resurrection of Christ. Lutherans aren't so big on the Holy Spirit. We like things polite, orderly, and understandable. We need to know which Setting of the Liturgy we're going to use and what page the correct responses are on. We allow for little spontaneity or "movement of the spirit". So when I go to church I look around the congregation for signs of the spirit moving among us. I get a sense of spirit when I see an elderly woman with tight gray curls, a polyester orange pantsuit, and bright red lipstick use her walker to go up for communion. She is slow and unsteady and talks loudly, clearly not sure of how to get to the altar or how to find her way back to the pew. Young children, teen-agers, and adults all either move aside to allow her room or move in to assist her. She is shown the greatest of respect and retains her dignity. I feel spirit when the pastor puts aside his/her sermon notes and speaks from the heart. When the pastor speaks with honesty and vulnerability about his/her own struggles and personal experiences that to me, is a sign of the spirit at work. Or a small child toddles up the aisle with a parent in embarrassed pursuit, doesn't catch her in time and then can only stand and watch as she runs amuck around the pastor and the altar and the lit candelabra. That's the spirit!

Many rivers in North Dakota have been running amuck this spring and early summer. They've flown past all heroic human engineering feats to stop them and they've run and spread where they please. They're running wild and free, creating new channels for themselves wherever they go. We thought we were in control of the rivers, but nature is proving otherwise. That's the kind of work the Holy Spirit does in our hearts and lives. We put up many different kinds of dams in our hearts in an attempt to control our own lives. Dams of self-righteousness, judgement of others, being stingy, timidness, fear of failure, and on and on....We each have our own personally engineered dams built over a lifetime. Today I'm reminded to surrender day by day to the power of the Holy Spirit. She'll run wild and free and create new channels with boldness and authority and love. I can dismantle my dams rock by rock knowing that a power much greater than me is in control. And I can run wild and free, safe and secure in that knowledge.