Unleashed

This week we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus in worship, and it is one of my favorite weeks of the year. The reason for this is two-fold: First - We invite everyone who has been baptized in the past year to come back and we have a public recognition of all those baptisms. Second - the text, when it comes from Mark's gospel - demonstrates how God is loose in the world, and with God loose, who knows what is going to happen.

So I started thinking about the God moments in my life - those times when God pops up and I see the many and various ways he is at work. An example of this happened when my dad died. Now, I have a number of friends who I had not seen in a long time - people I was close to in high school, but over time we went different ways and time and distance separated us. We would stay in touch occasionally by e-mail or phone calls, but the contact was limited.

When dad died, I e-mailed and called two these friends since they knew dad as well. All I was expecting was for them to share their sympathies. Instead, both of them said - I will meet you in Billings in two days. Neither of them lived anywhere near Billings and both would have to take some time off of work, but they were coming - one even beat me there.

This was one of those God moments where I saw the Spirit unleashed through others. You see, God is all about relationships - our relationship with him and with others. And he wants us to know that no matter where we are in life, he is there. And he uses other humans to bring his peace, comfort, and love to us. This was shown in a brilliant way to me at that time, and I continue to see those God moments, as long as my eyes are open.

So today, may your eyes be opened to the unleashed Spirit in your life. May you have a God moment or two, and may you be the instrument of God as well in the lives of others.