Spirit-Driven

A prayer for being half-way through Lent:
God of the journey,
we wander through the wilderness,
thirsty and in need of nourishment.
As we search,
sustain us with your loving presence,
lift us by your grace, and
save us from our time of trial.

—a prayer from Why I Believe: Daily Devotions on Faith & Discipleship (UCPH, 2017)

We are half-way through Lent. Half-way through that season of the church year when we remember the story of Jesus on his 40 day spiritual retreat in the  wilderness, having been "driven" there by the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:12). 
Where is the Spirit "driving" you during this Lenten time? Where is the Spirit 
driving" Aylmer United Church? How do you know when the Holy Spirit is around you? Engaging with you? Pulling you? Prodding you? Leading you? Pushing you? Inviting you? 

Sometimes it is through the voices of other people. Sometimes it is in the quietness of prayer. Sometimes it is in the silence of simply being. Sometimes it is when we least expect it.  

I have discovered that there is nothing more surprising than the Spirit of God. Just when I think I have her pinned down, she blows a new thought, and new challenge, a new blessing right into my life. I can resist, but I know that in the end there is no point. I will be unsettled and restless until I work through my resistance and commit to working in partnership with this new thing I am called to do, or this new way I'm called to be. Sometimes I resist for a long time. You would think that by now I would have learned. 

Thanks be that the Spirit's persistence is greater than my resistance!