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Holy Spirit disruptions: Overview of the series

Lynne Baab • Thursday November 4 2021

For five decades, I have known that Jesus is present in my life through the Holy Spirit. During those same decades, I also have affirmed that God works in our lives through the Holy Spirit. But I had no idea how many examples I would see when I looked at my life through the lens of “Holy Spirit disruptions.” Here are all the weekly posts in this series that ended up running six months – because I kept finding new memories to write about:

Introduction to the series Embodiment Pride and ego We are God’s beloved What if something being hard shows we’re doing it right? Go/wait Wait Ignite...

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Holy Spirit disruptions: Sin as vandalism of shalom

Lynne Baab • Friday October 29 2021

I was emailing back and forth with a friend about Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., one of my favorite seminary professors. My friend said that Dr. Plantinga’s book, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, was very helpful to him. I asked why, and he said the definition of sin, “not the way it’s supposed to be,” clarified his thoughts. It helped him see that sin is anything that vandalizes shalom.

I loved the power of those words. “Vandalism” implies willful destruction or damage, which raises a question: If our damage to shalom – for ourselves or someone else –...

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Holy Spirit disruptions: Care not cure

Lynne Baab • Saturday October 23 2021

“Care is being with, crying out with, suffering with, feeling with. Care is compassion. It is claiming the truth that the other person is my brother or sister, human, mortal, vulnerable, like I am. . . . Often we are not able to cure, but we are always able to care.” —Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

I have experienced two Holy Spirit disruptions related to Henri Nouwen’s idea that we can always care, even when we can’t cure. The first disruption happened slowly, over my midlife years, as I began to become aware of my deeply rooted desire to fix things –...

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Holy Spirit disruptions: Give less advice

Lynne Baab • Thursday October 14 2021

I never really understood or appreciated small talk until we lived in Dunedin, New Zealand, for ten years. The weather there often changes more than once each day. When chatting with the administrative people in my department at the university or with checkers at the grocery store, I could say, “Did you enjoy that sunny Sunday afternoon?” or “Wasn’t that windstorm amazing?” Weather was a fuel for communicating warmth, without taking the time to interact deeply. Weather talk, like all small talk at its best, says, “I care about you but I don’t have the time/energy/inclination for a deep conversation right...

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