Spirit in the form of a 2 year old

Sunday, Tracy told me I am a mix between mainline protestants and modern evangelicals. Well,  I think I am just Tina.

We hear of churches being spirit lead which most often refers to the Pentecostal tradition. You, like me might envision people speaking in tongues, arms in the air praising God and singing loudly. That is one form of a Spirit lead church, another is right here in North Weymouth.

I am a planner. I work hard every week to create a liturgy (the work of the people) to give our community a Spirit filled service. Of course the Spirit showing up has nothing really to do with me and my plans, however I like for service to run smoothly. 

Last week I worked hard on my sermon, even tried a new method to sermon writing. I felt the final product was good, even Spirit inspired. I rehearsed and was prepared for a great Sunday service. This weak instead of doing the usual and just reading the scripture myself right before the sermon, I decided to be tech savvy and have an audio recording read the scripture through our great sound system. Then the epic fail occurred, the recording stopped mid way through the text and skipped back from chapter 19 to chapter 5. ARGH! Forcing me to finish reading the passage annoyed at myself that all my planning did not workout.

So I paused, took a breathe, prayed and began the well rehearsed sermon. Unexpectedly, the Spirit suddenly showed up. She was wearing a clip in her hair to keep her bangs out of her face, and bright sneakers which lit up with every step. From pew to pew it was a game of peek-a-boo and exclamations of excitement.

The Spirit was not in the pulpit but rather down in the pews. Midway through my sermon I finally realized and recognized the Spirit and invited her up to finish preaching with me. The Spirit on my right hip answering and affirming "yeah" to every statement. As well as a "hi Momma" and a "is that your phone?"

Once my arm was completely fatigued and the sermon came to an end, I gave the Spirit a little kiss on the head and sent her back to God's people. 

Our church was lead by and filled by the Spirit that morning. We were a Spirit following people! 

Now if we can just always recognize the Spirit through our plans and outside of our plans.

After all, the Spirit is not prepared and smooth well orchestrated...the Spirit is a beautifully peek-a-booing two year old who wants to preach.