Pentecost: Expect the Unexpected

Today was Pentecost Sunday... a thought that probably mostly got lost in the shuffle of Mother's Day and the general busyness of early spring.

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you." (John 14:16-17 NLT)

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth..." (John 16:13a NLT)

"Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit..." (Acts 2:3-4a NLT)

I was reflecting as I was driving home from dropping a friend off tonight that in some ways my new "motto" in life has become "Expect the Unexpected." It's a reflection of the way my life has gone lately. The expected just isn't on the table anymore, and when I get up in the morning I never quite know what a day will bring. (For that matter, when I go to bed at night, I never quite know what my sleep and dreams will bring either.)

And then, as I reflected upon this, I was reminded that it was Pentecost Sunday, and that this last year has been one of increasingly deeper encounters with the Spirit of God, and with a growing understanding of that part of my relationship with the Lord.

Expect the unexpected - a lesson that would apply equally well to my spiritual life as to the happenings of day to day life. (Not that they're particularly separate either.)

I'm caught by the idea of the Spirit being at the center of speaking truth. I'm caught by it because of some ongoing things in my life. I'm caught by it because I feel deeply the need to speak truth, and the lack of it in the lives of many, and the harm that it's lack brings.

It's Pentecost Sunday, the Spirit speaks truth, and I am reminded that it doesn't always look like what I expect.

Expect the unexpected!