{"id":3174,"date":"2023-11-20T07:21:54","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T12:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3174"},"modified":"2023-11-20T07:22:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T12:22:40","slug":"the-spirit-liberates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/20\/the-spirit-liberates\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spirit Liberates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here<\/a>

During the month of November, we\u2019re taking a look at 21 essential activities of the Holy Spirit, who represents God\u2019s presence in and through every follower of Jesus.<\/em>
 
Have you ever been in a jet and started wondering, \u201cHow in the world is this thing staying up in the air?\u201d
 
Planes are considerably heavier than the atmosphere.  They cannot float.  The law of gravity mandates that whatever is heavier than air must be drawn relentlessly toward the center of the earth.
 
For centuries, philosophers, inventors, and everybody\u2019s know-it-all uncle declared that flight was a privilege reserved only for creatures with wings.  Geese, bats, and mosquitoes get to have all the fun.
 
In 1903, the New York Times<\/em> confidently declared, \u201cIt might be assumed that the flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years\u2026\u201d 
 
The editors were off on their prediction by, well, approximately one to ten million years.  A mere nine weeks after their declaration that it was impossible to coax heavier-than-air machines off the ground, the Wright brothers did exactly that above the sand dunes of a North Carolina beach. 
 
If today is an average day \u2013 and it\u2019s almost certainly not, since this is Thanksgiving week \u2013 more than 45,000 commercial flights will defy gravity, taking off and landing safely.   
 
How is that possible? 
 
The answer is Bernoulli\u2019s Principle \u2013 one of those arcane propositions you probably had to memorize to pass a test back in high school.
 
Airplane wings are curved in such a way that air flows faster above the wing than beneath it.  According to Bernoulli\u2019s Principle, if water or air is flowing faster along one side of an object than the other, the pressure along that side will decrease, and force will be exerted toward that low-pressure side.  That\u2019s what gives an airplane wing its lift.
 
Every time a jet rolls toward the runway, the air traffic controllers don\u2019t have to say to the pilot, \u201cYou are cleared for takeoff just as soon as we suspend the law of gravity.\u201d 
 
The law of gravity is never <\/em>suspended.  It is always operational.  Planes are able to fly simply because they are in the grips of a greater <\/em>law \u2013 one that supersedes gravity.
 
The apostle Paul describes the reality of the forces that are competing for control of our lives in three consecutive chapters in the book of Romans.  Chapters six, seven, and eight are like thick bread.  They may not be easy reading, but they are incredibly nourishing.  
 
Paul acknowledges that every human being is saddled with deeply implanted impulses that cause us to make a shambles of virtually everything we do.  Those I\u2019m-in-charge-here<\/em> desires that we can\u2019t seem to shake \u2013 the ones that prompt us to ignore God\u2019s design for our lives \u2013 remain exceedingly powerful.
 
But those who throw in their lot with Jesus are offered something even more powerful: a new set of desires that can overcome the gravity-like tug of our dark side.
 
And how are those new, God-honoring desires activated?  By relying on the gift of God\u2019s indwelling Holy Spirit.  That\u2019s what Paul affirms in Romans 8:2: \u201cFor the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death\u201d (New International Version<\/em>).   
 
Whenever we arrive at such important texts, it\u2019s worth checking out how other translations make sense of things.  Romans 8:2 in The Voice<\/em> reads, \u201c\u2026.because when you live in the Anointed One, Jesus, a new law takes effect<\/em>. The law of the Spirit of life breathes into you and<\/em> liberates you from the law of sin and death.\u201d
 
Here how Eugene Peterson renders the same verse in The Message<\/em>: \u201cThe Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.\u201d  In Romans 8:4 he adds, \u201cAnd now what the law code asked for but we couldn\u2019t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.\u201d
 
Bernoulli\u2019s Principle allows airplanes to overcome the law of gravity.  That\u2019s reassuring.
 
But Bernoulli\u2019s Principle has never once pried a jet off the ground.  That\u2019s the pilot\u2019s job.  For a plane to fly, somebody has to start its engine, taxi it to the runway, and gun the engines to reach sufficient speed to become airborne.
 
In principle<\/em> God has provided everything we need to experience a deeply satisfying spiritual life.  God has honored us with the gift of his own Spirit.  We don\u2019t have to be crushed under the dead weight of our own brokenness. 
 
But we\u2019re not just passive spectators to this miracle.  We have a crucial role to play.  
 
We will never get off the ground unless we choose to live in such a way that the Holy Spirit can provide the maximum amount of lift <\/em>\u2013 something that we will explore more specifically tomorrow.
 
That, by the way, is the only way to fly. 
 
And you\u2019ll love this part:
 
There\u2019s no TSA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here During the month of November, we\u2019re taking a look at 21 essential activities of the Holy Spirit, who represents God\u2019s presence in and through every follower of Jesus. Have you ever been in a jet and started wondering, \u201cHow in the world is this thing staying up in the air?\u201d Planes are considerably… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[352],"class_list":["post-3174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-holy-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3177,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3174\/revisions\/3177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}