we have been waiting for this Spirit ..."

"We have been waiting for this Spirit – somehow forgetting that the Spirit was given us a long time ago- in fact it was hovering over chaos in the first lines of the Bible.  We are waiting for one who has already come.  We are waiting for water that has already been poured fresh and sparkling into our cup.  We are waiting for a cool breeze in a desert of our own making.  We are waiting for a fire that has been burning incessantly within.  We are waiting for the life that we already have.

We are waiting, we say, and yet we have padlocked the door – out of fear.  We are afraid of this part of God that we cannot control or explain or merit, which is seductive and cannot be legislated, measured or mandated.  Let’s be honest.  We do not like this part of God which is dove, water and invisible wind.  We are threatened by this part of God “which blows where it will” and which our theologies cannot predict or inhibit.  We, like the disciples in the Upper Room, sit behind locked doors of fear, and still say that we are waiting and preparing for his Holy Spirit. 

Fortunately, God has grown used to our small and cowardly ways.  God knows that we settle for easy certitudes instead of gospel freedom.  And God is determined to break through.  The Spirit eventually overcomes the obstacles that we present and surrounds us with enough peace so that we can face the “wounds in his hands and his side.”  We meet the true Jesus, wounds and all, and we greet our true selves for perhaps the first time.  The two are almost the same.  “Peace be with you,” he says again."
http://www.laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html