The Holy Spirit – Classroom Assistant

“The Holy Spirit is interested in having an authentic relationship with us. He has no interest in interfacing with our religious pretences and fictions. The Holy Spirit is waiting to meet Christ-followers who are painfully aware of their limits, quirks and moral shortfalls, so that he can overcome them. He is actively seeking those who will present all of their brokenness to him and allow him to burn a signal fire over it.”
-The Divine Intention by Larry Shallenberger.

This passage (and others in the same chapter) led me on a thought process. Imagine a situation in school or college, where the teacher is quite a formidable character. Scary even. He has little patience, and he sets a task for the whole class to do, and says ‘get on with it.’ This could equally be a boss in work, or an officer in a military situation, or something like that.
Despite his explanation, you haven’t really understood, or got a clue what you are supposed to do. You look around to see what everyone else is doing, but it’s still not clear. There is no way you can ask the teacher/boss – even thinking about it brings you out in a cold sweat. However there is another person – maybe a kind of classroom assistant, or even just another student or a colleague. And this person comes alongside, spotting your discomfort, and asks, ‘do you know what you are supposed to do?’ You shake your head. The classroom assistant gently goes through it with you, and sets you going on the task. And keeps an eye on what you are doing, offering helpful suggestions.

This, for me, is what the Holy Spirit is like – aware of our weaknesses, non-judgemental, waiting for us to honestly admit our difficulties, helping us do what we are supposed to do, pointing us in the right direction…

In any analogy, you can’t always make all the parts fit. In this case, who is the fierce teacher who is totally unapprocahable? Clearly not God the Father. Could it be the Bible? Certainly – especially the bits we struggle to grasp. If this were Paul writing to some Jewish Christians, it would be the Law of Moses. For us, it could still be that, or, more likely, our sense of what is required to be religious. The unapproachable teacher might represent the church, or our cultural interpretation of Christianity. Any other thoughts? Answers on a postcard….