Do We See the Spirit of God Active in the World?

A couple of weeks ago I was leading a doctoral seminar at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The focus of the seminar was missional spirituality. Though we talked about how a missional perspective (about what God is doing in the world to reconcile humanity to himself and to one another) and how it effects and affects our spirituality, we also spent a significant amount of time talking about the Holy Spirits and the Spirit's presence and activity in the world.

John Taylor talks about the Holy Spirit as the Go-Between God in which he talks about the Spirit as God who goes before us, draws us into relationship with God and with one another, and prepares the hearts and lives of people to have ears to hear and eyes to see the activity and presence of God in the world.

A significant conclusion we came to as a class is that we need to become more aware of where the Spirit of God is in the world. As we live out our daily lives, we are so focused on our agendas, what issues and responsibilities are ours, our schedules, our appointments, our commitments. What we miss in this focus on what we are about or what we need to be doing is that we rarely take the time to see where the Spirit of God is present, what the Spirit of God is up to, the encounters the Spirit of God leads us into.

Two of us had an interesting encounter on the weekend between the first and second week of class. On Saturday I decided to take the transit system into Dallas to see Dealey Plaza and the Sixth Floor museum to reflect on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Afterwords I had some great barbecue at Sonny Bryans. On the way back to SMU I got involved in a conversation with a homeless person. We talked for about half an hour. His name is Robert and he had lost family and home through Katrina. I helped him out. Unbeknownst to me (I found out about this in class Monday), Joe, a pastor from Atlanta taking the class, also went into Dallas, also had an encounter with Robert, also helped him out and took him to lunch at Sonny Bryans. We missed each other by about 30 minutes. Robert gave Joe a different story about getting out of prison, etc. Did we get duped? Probably! Robert seems to have a different story for every occasion. But as we reflected upon it in class, we also concluded both Joe and my encounter with Robert was no coincidence - but something that revealed the activity of the Spirit - for sure in our lives and I am sure in Robert's life as well. If we had another weekend, I am sure Joe and I would have gone together into Dallas, found Robert and rather than confronting him, we were open to being present to him in the way Jesus might.

This brings about something else we talked about in class. Not only do we need to have better vision to see the presence of the Spirit in the world, but how do we respond when we see the Spirit being present in the world? Because the Spirit has taken possession of our lives, are we not at the Spirit's disposal to connect with others to whomever God leads us so that the Spirit of God can "go-between" us so that the other experiences an encounter with God?

I will address this more in another blog.

So the challenge for me (and maybe for you to) is not to live my life so self-absorbed and caught up in my own schedules, but to be open to see where the Spirit is, what the Spirit is doing. To be open to wherever the Spirit may lead me, because maybe, if I am open to the Spirit and I am not too caught up in what I am about, the Spirit just may bring the presence of God to bear into another person's life.

Anyways, this is a challenge I want to always be open to.

Roland