Tongues?

Since we're still running low on You Ask, I Answer questions, for now I'm going to just answer them on Tuesdays.

So, today I'm going to link you to this article, Tongue Talker, ask you to go and read it, and then come back and tell me what you think.

I agree deeply with the author's perspective on the gift of tongues, and I loved what she had to say.

It's definitely the gift of the Holy Spirit that I have wrestled with the most.  In my mind, it's the "weirdest", the hardest to understand, the one that scares me because it's basically impossible to control.

I'm not sure I can even answer the question of whether or not I speak in tongues.  I think so?  Maybe?  Sometimes?  It's happened once or twice, I think, in a sort of quiet way.

And yet, there is a part of me that finds deep beauty in the idea, and hopes that the gift of tongues grows in me.  There is something deeply enticing to me in my soul having a language all it's own to talk with Jesus.  It's the same part of me that has always clung to the deep promise that the Spirit will intercede for us with groanings beyond words.

So, tell me what you think.  Do you speak in tongues?  Is it part of your faith tradition?  Do you think it's weird? Scary? Beautiful?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

You Ask, I Answer, Take 4

That's right folks, it's time for another installment of You Ask, I Answer.  Today's question comes from Johanna again.  She asks:

Do you think it is important to be baptized in the Holy Spirit after you have given your life to Christ?

I'll be honest with you, and say that my answer is "I don't know."

My faith journey looks something like this:

• Raised in a fairly conservative evangelical culture, as a pastor's kid
• experienced a lot of good and a lot of bad that comes with Christianity as a result of being a pastor's kid
• introduced early to attack Christianity, at the age of 10, when the church dad was pastoring went through a brutal split, and he resigned and planted the church that he still pastors today
• struggled a lot with the feelings of pressure that came with being a pastor's kid
• transitioned into public school for jr. high after being homeschooled, and spent some pretty brutal years dealing with vicious girls in the youth group
• attended a Catholic high school, not sure at this point if I even believe in God, but compelled to defend my protestant beliefs in a myriad of intellectual lunchtime discussions, while really wanting nothing more than to escape faith and it's burdens
• got involved with Young Life in 12th grade - met a great friend in the woman who was my leader and felt seen and cared for for who I was and my own walk with God and not who my dad was and his role in the church for the first time in my life;  still totally wrestling with faith
• just before my 18th birthday, I was baptized.  It wasn't so much that I had answers, as it was that in my own logical evaluation, it would be more of a problem to drop everything I'd believed for 18 years, than it would be to simply subscribe to it.
• in the first years of University I got involved with a small church that was growing, mostly composed of students and twenty somethings and was exploring "Holy Spirit"
• I met people there who had something I'd never seen before.  These people really "knew" Jesus.
• I was struggling with severe depression, and also longing for this relationship that my new friends had with Jesus.  The combination led to some pretty rough years.
• While studying in university, I began to be fascinated by liturgical traditions of the church, studying them as part of my specialization in European church history, particularly in the Reformation and post-reformation periods.
• In my last year of university, sitting in a car, I encountered the Holy Spirit in a powerful, supernatural way, and my depression was healed.
• My life entered new kinds of turmoil and upheaval as my journey with God took some more crazy twists and turns, including a variety of experiences with prayer, dreams and visions, and other interesting encounters with the spiritual realm and it has stayed that way ever since that moment of healing almost six years ago.

So, these days I guess you could categorize me as a liturgy loving, evangelical, charismatic with a soft spot for the mystical and anything to do with prayer.

What, you ask, does that have to do with the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

Well, it's like this - my experiences and personal journey and experiences have shaped my beliefs.  I don't believe that there is something special - some unique baptism of the Spirit, per say.  I believe that the Spirit is present with all of us.  That said, if what you mean by baptism of the Holy Spirit is a particular moment or encounter when the Spirit goes from being the more traditionally evangelical silent member of the trinity, at most recognized as our conscience, to being a living and active part of our relationship and interaction with God, then yes, I do pray that all those who know Jesus will also experience this baptism of the Spirit that He sent to us as counselor, guide and comforter.  However, I don't believe that this looks the same for everyone, or that it happens at a specific time or moment.  For me, it happened the day I was healed, and it was about being in a place where I was desperate enough to surrender.  For friends of mine, it's looked totally different.  But I do pray that everyone will somehow experience, in the way unique to their own hearts and relationships with the Lord, an active relationship with the Spirit.

Thoughts?  I'm not interested in a big theological debate, but I'd love to hear your thoughts (keep them civil please), or to know if this has stirred more questions for you.  Like I keep saying, this feature will be around for as long as the questions come in, and I'm willing to talk about just about any topic you want to bring up here.

No Grid

I've been at a conference the last three nights.

If you ask, I'd probably tell you that I was getting my crazy charismatic fix for the next while.  I don't have a lot of opportunities to be in a more wildly charismatic environment in person these days, so I get my fill where I can.

But some of the evenings of the conference were even outside of my grid for processing.

I'm still laughing over last night's crazy worship party.  Though mostly because it turns out that the speakers, Georgian and Winnie Banov, were some of the people behind classic kids songs like "Bullfrogs and Butterflies" and "The Music Machine" and "Agapeland" kids tapes.  I loved those tapes as a kid, but let me tell you, the rather conservative church I grew up in, that sanctioned those tapes, had clearly never seen Georgian and Winnie live and in person.  Ever.  Because it was off the hook crazy.

And I've been laughing all day as I think about those lovely little kids tapes that were so sedate, and taught the fruits of the spirit (does anyone else remember that song about the snail, "Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry..."), and then in my head I picture the scene from last night and start laughing all over again.  I'd shared the funny conflicting images with a friend of mine by email when I got home last night, knowing she'd likely remember the kids songs too, and find the image as funny as I did, and I laughed aloud when I read the following line in a reply from her this morning, "inwardly giggles...and hopes Lisa doesn't drink anything while Mr. Music Machine is bopping all over the stage because if something strikes her funny then laughing with a mouth full of water could get messy ;-) hee, hee"

(Just for your information, I didn't drink any water during worship at this morning's session, but I did laugh to myself a few times remembering your comment LP/CA !)

So, that's been my last few days.  Lots of experiences, basically all good, that I'm greatly amused by, and not quite certain how to absorb and process.

Several from Henri

Several thoughts from Henri Nouwen have been collecting in my inbox again, waiting to be shared here... All of these have offered reminders that I've needed to hear this last week or so.

Joint Heirs with Christ

We continue to put ourselves down as less than Christ. Thus, we avoid the full honour as well as the full pain of the Christian life. But the Spirit that guided Jesus guides us. Paul says: "The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:16-17).

When we start living according to this truth, our lives will be radically transformed. We will not only come to know the full freedom of the children of God but also the full rejection of the world. It is understandable that we hesitate to claim the honor so as to avoid the pain. But, provided we are willing to share in Christ's suffering, we also will share in his glory (see Romans 8:17).

The Power of the Spirit

In and through Jesus we come to know God as a powerless God, who becomes dependent on us. But it is precisely in this powerlessness that God's power reveals itself. This is not the power that controls, dictates, and commands. It is the power that heals, reconciles, and unites. It is the power of the Spirit. When Jesus appeared people wanted to be close to him and touch him because "power came out of him" (Luke 6:19).

It is this power of the divine Spirit that Jesus wants to give us. The Spirit indeed empowers us and allows us to be healing presences. When we are filled with that Spirit, we cannot be other than healers.

Empowered to Speak

The Spirit that Jesus gives us empowers us to speak. Often when we are expected to speak in front of people who intimidate us, we are nervous and self-conscious. But if we live in the Spirit, we don't have to worry about what to say. We will find ourselves ready to speak when the need is there. "When they take you before ... authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say, because when the time comes, the Holy Spirit will teach you what you should say" (Luke 12:11-12).

We waste much of our time in anxious preparation. Let's claim the truth that the Spirit that Jesus gave us will speak in us and speak convincingly.

Empowered to Pray

Prayer is the gift of the Spirit. Often we wonder how to pray, when to pray, and what to pray. We can become very concerned about methods and techniques of prayer. But finally it is not we who pray but the Spirit who prays in us.

Paul says: "The Spirit ... comes to help us in our weakness, for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words; and he who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God's holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God" (Romans 8:26-27). These words explain why the Spirit is called "the Consoler."

Pentecost...

I know it's late in the day to be mentioning this, but today was Pentecost, the day the church commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit.

It's been a particularly profound thing for me this year, and I spent a large chunk of the day writing and reflecting on many things.

Processing events of the last week, and the last month and a half, and the last year and a half.

Some longer reflections on Pentecost may show up here later in the week, but for now, I just wanted to wish you moments filled with the breath and the warmth of the Spirit of God. Filled with the healing and restoration that are miraculous, and can only be brought by him.

Come, Holy Spirit, Come.