The best footage I shot in Bosnia I deleted. I walked the frontlines with Sonja and I let my camera roll. We walked in more than one place. She told me her story. I don't know why I recorded the conversation more than the spirit led me. I showed a few people a finished product and they each said she had put in words what none of them could.
I showed it to Sonja she was offended. We haven't talked much since. We were pretty close. I deleted the tape. I did not hesitate because the same spirit led me. It seemed it took the spirit to make and the spirit to recognize defeat. It really almost was something. Maybe if I had said something different to her, but I think today that she was in too much pain. There was only an answer time could bring.
Her story was of a knock that everyone feared. Could be one of three or four armies at your door. Each supposed different nationalities represented in your home. Things would go best if the right person answered the door.
Another a close friend of mine filmed for me. Deep into the archives of a great Bosnian artist. Things few had seen. More importantly his words describing. I asked to share but he declined. It was their relationship so there wasn't anything I could do. The easiest parts of life is where we have no choice. We must rely on the spirit. I deleted 99.9% like a bird in flight.
For me it is easiest to identify the influence of the holy spirt on my life when I have no choice. I am surprised with every choice I have. It really means to me that in some sense it must not be that important. We put things in different categories sometimes. Life goals. Get to the end of the day goals. I almost take for granted these times I have no choice. I have never worked anywhere I could not imagine myself working. I would have done with less freedom that some would say we are doomed to. If you don't know God, Jesus or the Spirit freedom is a scary thing. Almost too much.
I represented some young people once and took upon myself to express their grievance with my employers. I was a community services officer. We were great at making titles. We had to be growing from 10 to 100 in one year. My superiors had heard the grievance before, but I wasn't alone. Then the kids changed their minds and told the volunteer I supervised they wanted to drop the issue. I was given no choice. Spirit had led me here and so it would lead on to the next job.
Worked with a man then from South Africa who was our conflict resolution manager I think we called him. Never was really sure what he did, but he liked to talk about all the nonviolent conflict resolution done in South Africa. I just liked to point out it was the violence and the activism of the entire world that eventually gave the regime no choice, but to change. The spirit led.
Today we first remember a time when the spirit did not lead. We find in John 7:37-39 from the Amplified Bible:
37 Now on the last and most important day of the feast, Jesus stood and called out [in a loud voice], “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! 38 He who believes in Me [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Me], as the Scripture has said, ‘From his innermost being will flow continually rivers of living water.’” 39 But He was speaking of the [Holy] Spirit, whom those who believed in Him [as Savior] were to receive afterward. The Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (raised to honor).
Rivers of living water. Bounty is easier to imagine.
I think having no spirit to guide is difficult to imagine. I guess the best we have to compare are those Nobel nonbelievers. One who comes to mind is Jean-Paul Sartre who was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism.
Marxism is seen as evil mostly because of the lack of spirit or belief in God. But it doesn't have to be. He once described acting alone for the good of all:
"Man cannot will unless he has first understood that he can count on nothing but himself: that he is alone, left alone on earth in the middle of his infinite responsibilities, with neither help nor succor, with no other goal but the one he will set for himself, with no other destiny but the one he will forge on this earth. It is this certainty, this intuitive understanding of his situation, that we call despair. You can see that it is no fine romantic frenzy but the sharp and lucid consciousness of the human condition. Just as anguish is indistinguishable from a sense of responsibility, despair is inseparable from will. With despair, true optimism begins: the optimism of the man who expects nothing, who knows he has no rights and nothing coming to him, who rejoices in counting on himself alone and in acting alone for the good of all."
Who rejoices in counting on himself alone and in acting alone for the good of all is not the problem. Maybe everybody doesn't have to believe. But it is objectively harder.
Believers can cause big problems when they think the spirit is only on fire.
Acts 2:1-21 from the Amplified Bible - The Day of Pentecost it surely was:
2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, 2 and suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
This was quite a day. But we need to also remember the spirit is as often quiet.
3 There appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were being distributed [among them], and they rested on each one of them [as each person received the Holy Spirit].
Quite an arrival. The spirit would grow to be at home with us. This was surely their graduation day. These first students of our lord. Optimism of the people who expected everything. Who knew they had rights and the bounty all around.
Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) was observed at the time of the grain harvest and the offering of the first fruits, and was one of the three great annual Jewish festivals, along with Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths). Just as Jesus’ sacrifice was the fulfillment of Passover, the coming of the Holy Spirit was the fulfillment of Pentecost
4 And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues (different languages), as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out [clearly and appropriately].
We forget in many ways how global our civilization has always been. The rich and the slaves are even today the main people moving around. On this day these people all heard messages in their languages. I think these people from different lands were of a type. This was important that they all understood. They were not a side show.
5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout and God-fearing men from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound was heard, a crowd gathered, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing those in the upper room speaking in his own language or dialect. 7 They were completely astonished, --- how is it that each of us hears in our own language or native dialect? 9 [Among us there are] Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and people of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia [Minor], 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and the visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism), 11 Cretans and Arabs—we all hear them speaking in our [native] tongues about the mighty works of God!” 12 And they were beside themselves with amazement and were greatly perplexed, saying one to another, “What could this mean?” 13 But others were laughing and joking and ridiculing them, saying, “They are full of sweet wine and are drunk!”
Every nation under heaven. Reminds me of a story I heard in Bosnia. They told me Bosnians speak a few words of every language. Mostly how much? and thank you. In essence verse 5 to 13 we have the world wide web of the time.
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be explained to you; listen closely and pay attention to what I have to say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you assume, since it is [only] the third hour of the day (9:00 a.m.); 16 but this is [the beginning of] what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:
You could tell it was graduation day. They were starting to sound finally something like Jesus. Quoting the prophets as their master had often.
Nottingham UMC 5/28/2023
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