Resolution 2

Change in our life doesn't happen without the Holy Spirit - that amorphous being who helps us live our lives in God's power and not our own. The Holy Spirit is also responsible for that still, small voice of God that we hear in our innermost being.

In Genesis, the Holy Spirit is found at the very beginning of creation, hovering over the waters of the deep. In Hebrew, the word for the Holy Spirit is "ruach" which means breath. I love this image of God beginning to create the world by breathing his Spirit out upon it. It reminds me that everything around me is covered by God's being, including myself.

This knowledge should change us. It should change the way we look at the world and the way that we live our lives in it. Last week, on the recommendation of a friend, I watched a YouTube video of a young girl speaking at her brother, Ben Breedloves's funeral, here in Austin, TX. In it she says that God's gift to us is eternal life with Him and our gift to God is our life on earth.

That really struck me and has stayed with me for almost a week now. If this life is my gift to God, then a lot of the time I am really blowing it. Thank God for grace and new beginnings every morning! This idea, however, makes me want to be better and do better and I have been praying every morning for God's Holy Spirit to be with me and to help me be a better person in very specific ways.

If this very short life is really our gift to God, how are we each going to make it a gift worth giving?

CS