Most of us prefer fresh things. Especially when we’re eating. We also gravitate towards freshness when we talk about our perspectives. Paradoxically something older can be infused with a sudden dash of freshness that can surprise us. This is where the eyes of a child or a beginner are so valuable. I love conversing with people who view things with the freshness of morning dew.

A few months ago I had one of these fresh experiences. One of my friends who started the journey of following Jesus came to me and said, “Tom, I think I’ve figured out the Holy Spirit!” I looked at him with a slight inquisitive look and said, “Really, please tell me …”
Secretly I wondered if my friend was about to surpass millennia worth of ponderings into the mysterious ways of the Trinity.

He looked at me and said, “The Spirit is like the force in Star Wars.” I responded by telling him that I could understand how he figures that but wanted to add that the Holy Spirit is personal and not just an impersonal force. My friend looked at me with disbelief. “It’s impossible, he said, ‘for how can a Holy God want to inhabit my puny life with all its faults and messes?”

I said to him that that is the precise miracle of following God in the ways of Jesus.
He was stunned and walked away from our conversation shaking his head.

I must confess that I felt accomplished after that specific conversation. A cloud of smugness enveloped me. If only I knew that God would use those clouds to brew the perfect storm that would be used to wash the dustiness off of my intellectual windscreen so that I could again see with eyes of the heart.

A few months later about twenty of us gathered to probe into the mysteries of the gifting(s) of the Holy Spirit. My friend spoke up and asked, “Guys, I have a question. Over the last few months I’ve become convinced that the King of the Universe lives inside of us. That the Creator of all things decided to be within us. So why? Why don’t you guys have a continual party because of this wonderful news? Why are you so used to it?”

Old fact washed in freshness.
An invitation to a party!