The Spirit Within

 This summer I spent time studying the books of Luke and Galatians. I have read those books before but had not studied them. I met periodically with a friend and we discussed our thoughts regarding the assigned chapters but mostly we talked about our lives. It helped me tremendously to hear another person's perspective. We decided before we started that the basis of our study would be "Who is Jesus?" More importantly, "Who is Jesus in us?" The complete answer to those questions did not get answered but I got a better understanding of both. 

I think of Jesus as the Messiah, the greatest healer and teacher of all time, the only perfect human to ever live, and God in the flesh. He was born a human, grew up learning traditions, learning scripture, felt human emotion, overcame temptation, faced persecution, he was killed despite his innocence, and rose again to fulfill a plan that began millennium before he was born. The people of the time thought he was there to lead a political revolution. He would be the new King of Israel, hence delivering the Jews from slavery. The metaphor that we take for granted was lost on them. The night before his arrest, Jesus warned them that he would be leaving soon. They insisted they would always stay by his side. They would die for the cause. They even drew swords to ward off his arrest, cutting off the ear of one of the soldiers sent to capture Jesus. The way Jesus reacted amazes me! He rebukes his followers to put down their swords and heals the wounded man. His disciples must have thought, "What?! I thought we were going to fight for our freedom." Jesus is taken and his followers scatter out of fear. Now Jesus is alone, about to be abused, ridiculed and put to death. So of course, he speaks a profound speech that will be remembered for generations, protesting his innocence and inspiring a great revolt. Wait, no, that is not what he did. He barely responds to the false accusations against him. He submits, takes the ridicule, and dies a vicious, horrible death. 

That human who lived that way and died in that manner, he is the spirit that lives in us. He has felt all the pain we have felt and worse. He faced temptation when he was hungry and overcame it. He felt anguish and fear. He sweat blood he was so anxious. Have you ever sweat blood? Moments later he was able to control his emotions and reacted in love to heal one of the men who were about to do unbelievable harm to him. That is the spirit within us. The one I try to connect to when I am facing difficulty. I continue to fail over and over but I am reassured that as long as I keep trying and put my faith in him, it isn't a waste. Galatians talks about the fruit of the spirit being love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. My hope is that spirit within will flourish and grow to a great harvest.