You must be born again.
—John 3.7
Right smack dab in the middle of an argument
Spirit grabs you, takes your breath away.
For a moment you’re speechless
(because sometimes the gift of the Spirit
is not tongues but silence)
and you’re born again, again, from the top.
You’re a newborn infant. You don’t know everything.
You don’t have to argue. You’re not trying to dominate;
you’re dependent, and trusting.
You don’t have an agenda, other than to be God’s beloved,
and to treat the other person as one, too.
You’re too tiny a baby to know where you’re going,
too new to be in charge: you must be led,
and not even by the Great Know-It-All in the Sky,
but by the wind of mercy, the breath of grace.
You are too innocent, and full of love, to argue.
All you want is to love and receive the love you’re given,
given by the Ceaselessly Loving One.
You don’t need to win the argument; you need to be held,
a newborn in the arms of God.
You want to listen.
You need to listen for the voice of grace.
Let the other person argue.
You need to begin to be alive even more than before.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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