You Can't Handle the Truth!

There's an interesting concept that runs along side the obvious this time of year. By this time of year, I mean in my faith... Readings, messages, and all those "supposed to be good for you" kinda things. Take the theme of this coming week. We are approaching the "Feast of the Ascension of the Lord.". The feast marks the reality that Christ was lifted up (out of our sight) to take his place at "the right hand of the Father", which is pretty important and amazing in and of itself.

Meanwhile, these past few weeks, the Scriptures have been eluding to the equally cool reality that the Holy Spirit will be sent to help guide us through this path of life. It's purpose would seem to be to replace the Jesus that is no longer in our midst, because of his ascension. On the contrary, I believe the Spirit along with the Father and Son combine their love to offer us so much more than one direction ( no, not the questionably talented british boy band)... THEY offer us Truth! Take this phrase from this morning's Office of Morning Prayer: "I have many more things to tell you, but they would be too much for you now. When the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you to all truth, alleluia."

God reveals Himself in creation, and His mission is to love us and place us in a position to love Him back, and love one another.  He offers us Truth through the evidence that is all around us!  Christ reveals Himself in His sacrifice, and by His example.  He washes feet, and calls us to do the same.  He heals the sick, and invites us to care.  He teaches through His actions, and calls on us to learn His Way.  Christ offers us Truth through His example, so that as He lives forever, so shall we live forever!  Finally, the Spirit reveals itself in the epiphany of new hope, new ideas, and new efforts to apply all that is good at the right time, in the right place.  It does not reveal it all at once, for as the phrase from the prayer above says, it would be "too much for you now." And dare I say, it would be a tad boring if we got all the answers at once.

So, as we approach the Ascension, maybe we need to accept the reality that we CAN live and discover God's love and work Christ's miracles, all with the help of the Holy Spirit guiding us one baby step at a time towards the Truth.  Maybe we can't handle it all at once.  Maybe we're gonna have to live our whole lives, keeping watch and opening our hearts to the guidance promised us from above.  Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be!

PS: Looking ahead to Thursday... You'll want to tune in to your TV and go to Space.com to get a look at the "Ring of Fire" Solar Eclipse at 4:30pm CDT (Central time is God's time :) The timing is great, as we can get a gander at one of God's coolest tricks, calling us to look up and see all that is right and good about this amazing existence of ours!  Think about it, 2000 years ago the disciples looked up as Christ rose from their sight, remembering Hos promise that he would send us The Holy Spirit.  Unless you're down under in Austrailia, tune in and see the eclipse.  That "ring of fire" is all you need, to know that God loves you, and fulfills His promise to you every second of every day!  Peace!