Friends, Lovers, Seekers, Searchers, Listeners,--also on the journey:

Where do you find Mystery in your life, the Presence of what Christians call the Holy Spirit? I am not asking for what you believe or even how you come to believe. In order to understand what I am asking for, let’s consider the metaphor of a sailing vessel.

Think of a sailing vessel with no true permanent port. It sails on the open seas and is subject to the force of the elements. God is not on board this ship (altho many would like to think He is), but God propels it, draws it forward, as the Wind blowing into its sails. On most points of the sail, the Wind is ahead of the ship, pulling it forward through the vacuum,--a negative force--generating on the leeward side of the sails. Let’s say the sails are your faith, and the wind, the breeze what moves your faith. The ship is a metaphor for your life, or your goals, or your own journey.

This mystery we call God is not essentially objectifiable, controllable, or a predictable object but the Wind / Breath / Blowing / Living Spiritual Presence, always ahead of theology (and church). The wind would not be "caught", its redemptive power would blow only for nature except for the human endeavor of fixing and adjusting the sail.
Wind or breath is the root metaphor present in the word "Spirit," so to think of this mystery as the Wind blowing into the sails is to understand God as Spirit, the most unrestricted of the Trinitarian symbols. Like the wind, the Spirit of God generates a mysterious attracting-propelling power in the world. Every sailor knows how alert one must be to the wind, and the slight variations of breeze and ship that are constant in the blowing. I am not asking for a discussion of the metaphor.

The question for your journey, please, is WHERE DO YOU YOURSELF FIND THIS MYSTERIOUS PRESENCE TODAY IN YOUR LIFE--THIS BLOWING/ATTRACTING /PROPELLING WIND, BREATH, SPIRIT, GENTLE PRESENCE?

Another way of asking yourself this questions is: where do I find awe, a sense of wonder, the need to "take off my shoes?" maybe a compulsion to whisper rather than talk out loud, because this seems to be a sacred moment, or place, or person, perhaps a sense of undeserved and overwhelming giftedness. Where do you find the Wind, the Breeze for the sails of your faith? Where is your own "field of dreams"? Where do you find "amazing grace?"
Find some time for yourself. Think about your life, past and now. Where in the past have your found the Breeze for your sails, where now do you find the Wind that moves you to a sense of mystery, of the giftedness of your life, or where do you find amazing grace?

Go inside and listen carefully and become exquisitely aware of what your experience tells you. .If you write about it, you will ground it, establish it, own it, remember it, celebrate it, and it will nourish you on your journey.

Paschal Baute is welcoming your answers below with the aim of exploring the use of the internet for the sharing of our journeys and learning from one another. A group of us in Lexington have been engaged in this process now for 15 years (see web site: www.lexpages.com/sgn ) and part of our mission is to empower others by our own sharing.

Below you will find responses posted earlier in this gathering and sharing of stories. Copyright, Paschal Baute, 1997, 2004