You are Welcome Here

 I have found myself listening to Klove more and more. One of the songs they play pretty regularly is "Holy Spirit, You are Welcome Here." The first time I heard this particular song was in a church service: "Holy Spirit, You are welcome here. Come fill this place and fill the atmosphere." I didn't like it. I felt that it was theologically uncomfortable to ask the Holy Spirit to be present, when we are told that the Holy Spirit is present among us whenever we gather together as believers.

And yet.

And yet the song is growing on me. I have found myself thinking of all of the times that we have not acted like the Holy Spirit is welcome among us as believers. When we judge. When we exclude. When we are gluttonous at the expense of our brothers and sisters. When we act as gate keepers for God. When we forget about the Kingdom of God and our mission. When we more readily speak about hell then about God's grace, love, and mercy. When we act as if our ways are always God's ways.

We really do need to ask the Spirit to break open our hearts by declaring that the Holy Spirit is welcome in and among us. Asking the Holy Spirit to move.

Then doing the hard work of listening and being attentive to the movement of the Spirit.

So Holy Spirit, you are welcome in me. Help me to breathe in and out your life to others in all that I do and say. Fill me and fill the spaces I enter. Not for my glory, but for yours. Amen.