Managing the Mysterious

I apologize for not having this posted on Tuesday. I have been “losing myself” in His majesty at Regent Univ.

I was puzzled the other day while sitting in my Spiritual Formation classroom. The topic of how we discern the workings of the Holy Spirit was the center of our discussion. This started the wheels turning in my head, thinking about how mysterious this concept is to the person who has never set foot inside a house of worship. Does that make our sanctuary a “haunted house” type of place, spewing smoke and strange sounds to people passing by? To a child, this would be the perfect attraction for the upcoming season of ghosts and goblins. How do we, as Christians manage these mysterious concepts when they are just that, very mysterious and strange to someone who does not know Christ.

When we think about how God, in his magnificent triune existence, is the “perfector of our faith,” we must remember that not everyone around us knows the same God. If we were to examine how we came about having faith in our God, we may find that it was a long, very complicated process, one that does not lend itself to brief explanation. Our journey, or at least the one I have been on, seems to get more complicated at each turn, offering up several different options to be chosen from. I often feel that we have created such a complicated method of coming to know Christ, that we have created more obstacles to others feeling His love and His forgiveness. We tend to create barriers with the bricks of the church, keeping people out instead of inviting them in. I have found, in my short tenure at Regent, there is no need for boundaries when Christ is at the center of all.

It has been such an eye opening experience to watch others come to Christ, fully accepting Him as Lord and Savior, but with no expectations, no preconceived notions, without limits on our great God. This is where I believe we could take a note or two on just how to describe the triune God to others. This is where I believe we can drop all notions of putting walls around the Holy Spirit, making Him ours, solely ours.

One of the many ways we use to demonstrate our faith, to get the message out to the masses is through song. The genre of Contemporary Christian Music has been around for ages. This style of music flushes out the Holy Spirit in all of us. This music generates true and genuine expressions of the Holy Spirit at work in those who allow themselves to become lost in His grasp. I am slowly learning this very unusual method of “managing the mysterious.” It is just amazing to watch the spirit in action as He moves over an entire room of very different, very diverse individuals having an impact on each and every life. This is one way in which I hope to “manage the mysterious.” By allowing ourselves to be completely immersed in His majestic love for us, we can truly experience a taste of heaven as we all sing together the words on the screen. It is simply an amazing event to be a part of witnessing His Holy Spirit working in and among friends. We just simply need to figure out how to get this feeling to those who yearn for it.

I know that our God, our great triune God, can and will be everywhere at once. He will be with us as we move to the music, celebrating His presence and helping us to “manage the mysterious.”