discernment, part the fourth

Mighty Spirit, dwell with me: I myself would mighty be,
mighty so as to prevail where unaided I must fail,
ever, by a mighty hope, pressing on and bearing up.

First through sixth grades, I went to catechism classes at the local Wesleyan church. The meeting was called CYC, which was an acronym for something, but I've forgotten exactly what. Probably something like Christian Youth Club. I've got tons of stories from these Wednesday nights, many of them now horrifying to me after experiencing the other side of youth work, but this verse reminded me of the lessons on omnipotence.

Omnipotence: God is all-powerful. My grasp of most of these lessons was a little poor, due not so much to bad teaching as to the antics of a few cousins who weren't that interested in attentive listening. I really never got this one, though, and I don't think it was entirely my fault. The more I think about omnipotence, and the more I read about it, the bigger a mess it seems. What is God powerful to do? Does anyone else in the system have power? Is power a relevant concept if it is only possesed by one member of a system?

But mighty? Absolutely. Mighty is a Psalms word, a word I feel like I can sink in to and let hold me. Mighty makes me think of strong hands, of bears and spider webs. Mighty doesn't often make me think of me, but it does make me think of my hope for my growth in grace.

Mighty reminds me of a tent meeting experience this summer. We had thunderstorms off and on, all week, but one evening they seemed localized overtop of our tent. My parents, who live about a mile further up the hill from where we were meeting, thought that the storm was down in town because it didn't rain at their house. Latecomers who stopped at the gas station on their way up, though, said it was dry and clear in town and that folks were standing in the parking lot, looking at the thunderclouds swirling on the hill. Standing outside in the rain, I could see the edges of the thundercloud all the way around us, with the setting sun poking around in a ring beneath, skimming the treetops and reflecting off the raindrops in prisms.

It was like a display of mightiness, just for us. I could tell similar stories with a more personal, psychological bent, but this image sums up most of what I see when I think of the Almighty.

"Ever, by a mighty hope..." The Almighty aspect of God is the ground of soverignty, which is our mighty hope. May the Mighty Spirit dwell with us all.