How is the Spirit working in our lives?

How is the Spirit working in our lives, where is the path leading?  The last couple of months have been incredibly rich with new learning, stretching my comfort zone, stretching the limits of time and tasks.  But with that has comes some really wonderful new knowing, much of which I am still searching for language for. 

The Spirit is always working in our lives, sometimes in ways that we know and can name, other times it is a slow gradual, shifting. 

For years one of my favorite Lenten meditation books is one written by Martin L. Smith, "A Season for the Spirit".  As is God's way with me so often, I picked it up the other day and it immediately started to speak to me.  Lent is a time of reflection and refinement, a time of letting go and renewing.  This can only be done deeply when we are honest about where we are in our lives of faith, where we are in the lives we lead and where God is in all that. 

"The Spirit can help me today to understand a little better the interplay of Yes and No in my life.  There is a self within me that says No to hope, No to myself, No to others, No to opportunities, the self that allows everything to take on the darkness and rigidity of that cave inside where life seems frustrating and hurtful." 

There are times when we meet people and as their story unfolds a resilience,a sense of spirit is obvious.  As parents most of us want so much to make sure our children are happy, well and supported.  We wish for them love, joy and peace.  Yet, there are times that as human beings life unfolds the way it does.  People lose their jobs, money becomes sparse and the stress on a family is huge.  Marriage and relationships are challenging and sometimes even with the best intentions, prayer and hard work, people part ways.  Tragedy happens in some families, death, addiction, imprisonment all cause pain, loss and fear. 

Each of us know people that fall into any of these catagories, each of us can identify with a life described here.  Regardless of the experience that has formed us, we each must find those places in ourselves that cause us to say NO to the life that God is calling us to.  Some of the strongest most resilient people I have met or admire came from very challenging circumstances. 

"Can I also hear within myself the voice which pronounces a real Yes to God and to the life in which I meet God?  Can I hear a Yes from within which trusts and believes, which hopes and asks, which reaches and strives, which accepts and recieves?  Can I hear within myself a  Yes  which trusts the love of God and accepts our extream vulnerability at the same time without pretence?" 

It is truly looking back on the experiences in my life that I know how deeply I have been formed by those times that were so painful.  Finding our way through life and the decisions we make can be a maze, a place where we hit walls, or feel trapped with no way to get out.  Maybe we have times when we feel abandon or mislead.  I have been blessed in my life, I know the love of my family and friends.  Many of the lessons I had to learn were ones I was warned about, things I was taught that either never registered or I thought I knew better.  God alone knows us, God alone knows those places within us that long for love.  God is always there even when we think not, God will be that voice when we can hear no other, God is with us in the maze of life, and God longs for us to say Yes. 

"Can I hear a Yes from within myself which is deep because it is an acceptance of a way of love which works through our vulnerability? "

The quotes today are all from "A Season for the Spirit", Martin Smith.  In closing today, I am aware of the blessing of God, of time and those times in my life that have formed me so profoundly. I am reminded of my faith, my strengh and desire for a very intentional Yes to God. 

"Breath of God in me, God has said Yes to me by giving you to me as my helper and source of the new life I want.  The faith you are giving me will help my Yes to life gradually to sound stronger than the NO of my mistrust.  The hope you are stirring in me will help my Yes overcome my timitdity.  The love with which you are impregnating me will melt the barriers behind which I have been taught to live and help me say Yes to myself, to others and the God in whom we all live and move and have our being.  Amen" 
Martin Smith