How is your “Spirit Awareness Meter”? Do you know when the Spirit is beside you?

You cannot see the Spirit. But you know when the Spirit of Christ surrounds you. Maybe you had a significant experience in your life, in which you could feel Christ walking with you. Maybe in times like these, at Pentecost, you become aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence more than you do when you are going shopping or mowing grass or walking the dog. Or maybe you are one of those people who can feel the Spirit with you no matter where you are or what you are doing.

How is “your” Spirit Awareness Meter?

When I lived in Morristown, NJ just for a little while, during a time when I was writing extensively, I noticed that every time I would go out for a walk, no matter what time of day or evening, the town would be filled with dogs. So many dogs.  I had never seen so many dogs. And then I noticed that it wasn’t just that there were many dogs. These were seeing eye dogs. The town was filled it seemed with blind people, walking along the sidewalks and going in and out of shops, confidently strolling through the park, sitting on benches. I discovered from asking someone who lived in the town that Morristown in fact was home to a nonprofit organization called “The Seeing Eye, Inc.” The nonprofit’s mission is to “enhance the independence, dignity, and self-confidence of people who are blind, through the use of specially trained Seeing Eye dogs.”[1] They raise and breed puppies for the specific purpose of becoming seeing eye dogs. And here of course is the interesting part. They train not just the dogs, but the people, who need to know the proper use, handling, and care of the dogs. Having a Seeing Eye Dog is not just about a dog facilitating a human. It’s about cultivating a very special, meaningful, close relationship between human and canine, one that will last many, many years and enrich the lives of both parties.

On the company’s website, the management currently explains that they have partnered so far more than 17,000 guide dog teams throughout North America. John Bauer, one of the company’s seeing eye “grads” describes having a “seeing eye dog” beside him as like having a pair of wings. His dog is both a companion and a guide. John tells us that not only does the dog enable him to live a fulfilling life, walking wherever he would like in public places and experiencing events and people, but having the dog has also increased his relationships with others, because people will stop and talk to him, socialize, and get to know him. They are drawn to his dog. The relationship has increased his social life and ultimately his psychological health.

Those who have either Seeing Eye Dogs or other emotional support animals know that no longer must they walk through an unknown and sometimes terrifying world blind, but they now have a guide to walk beside them, to be their eyes, to see the road ahead, to make judgment calls, to defend them if necessary. For many, this sweet angel dog is their savior and advocate. In Greek, we would call it their “paracletos.”

Paraclete!  No, not Parakete!  Paraclete! The Greek word for advocate, supporter, intercessor, guide. This is the word used in the scriptures today for the Holy Spirit. For etymologically, the word “paracletos” meant “one called to walk alongside.”

Our spiritual “eyes,” our defender and advocate, our spiritual and emotional support system, our Christ companion in the world, the “paraclete” helps us to navigate the world while staying spiritually and emotionally sound. Jesus knew that we walk crippled through this world, that most of the time, we are blinded by a thousand distractions that keep us from staying on the right path that leads us to the kingdom of heaven. Just as Jesus’ disciples worried when he was leaving them, because they felt lost without him, without guidance, without their sense of mission, without their compass for right and wrong, without a strategy or goal for the future and what they were called to do, and Jesus assured them that an advocate would come, who would walk beside them just as he had, we too are granted that same advocate.

Jesus knows, we are no good alone. Without him we can do nothing. With him, we can do anything (John 15:5; Philippians 4:13). The Holy Spirit enriches our lives, leads us when we are feeling lost, enlightens us when we can’t see the truth, guides us in the right paths, and comforts us when things go awry. For like a “Seeing Eye Dog,” Jesus did not just send us a helper but a relationship. He sent us Himself. In the form of the Holy Spirit, Jesus remains with us, walks with us, talks with us, joins with us in life’s journey from beginning to end.

“I will be with you always,” he said.

Jesus was God’s Son and Sacrifice, our wake-up call and our transfiguring catalyst, but the Holy Spirit is God’s support system.

To “walk with God” or to have God “walk beside us” is the oldest phrase in the scriptures signaling someone’s relationship with God, the kind of person in whom you know God dwells because you can see it in their walk, their talk, their demeanor, their love for others, their sense of security, their calmness in the face of danger, their kindness, their gentleness.You can read in the scriptures this phrase commenting on the lives of the patriarchs and many who came after them. “They walked with God.” They not only lived a good life, but they were constantly aware of their relationship with God. Their lives were focused on that awareness, and they allowed God to guide them, to move them, and to orient them.

The early church would be founded in this same way. Those who came out of that Pentecost experience, in which the Holy Spirit touched down upon them in a dynamic and powerful way, emerged a new person, a person animated to share the gospel, excited about what the world could become, charged up to be change-makers, assured in what they were meant to be and do.

With the Holy Spirit as their guide, they would go out and change the world as they knew it. We are called to keep that mission alive.

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, our advocate and guide, has been sent to each and every one of us to guide us and comfort us, advocate on our behalf, and lead us into the future, proclaiming Christ risen, calling for repentance, and granting forgiveness to all God’s people wherever they reside.

To be an apostle of Christ is to be a traveler, not to be in our homes or buildings or behind closed doors, but to be a traveler on the roads and byways of life with the Holy Spirit by our side, our eyes and ears and our compass in the world, so that all can be redeemed.

The Holy Spirit comes to you not just for your sake but for the sake of the world that God so loves. The world and people God created and called good.

The world and people God redeemed by sending his only Son to be put to death by the same people he meant to save.

The world and people God has never given up on.

The world and people that include you and I and everyone you come in contact with, and even those you don’t.

The world and people God will never stop trying to save, no matter who they are or what they’ve done, even to the moment of truth.

God never gives up on God’s people. And neither must we.

This holy Pentecost, may you feel the power of the Holy Spirit around you, within you, and beside you. May you open your hearts and lives and allow Christ to guide you in your being and your living. And may the peace of Christ and the love of Christ go with you wherever you go.

Amen.