Many Christ-followers are like fire hydrants, at least in a sense. I don’t mean by appearance, though in my case, put me in the sun for 17 minutes and I’ll be close. 🙂 I mean that we have been given the most awesome, overwhelming, all-consuming power in the Holy Spirit, Who can gush (like a fire hydrant) through us, and yet we often tighten the lid, not wanting to look foolish to the world by something the Spirit is encouraging us to do. Case in point; a few weeks ago I was in a restaurant with some friends. I saw an older gentleman eating alone. I kept glancing over, and I am certain the Holy Spirit was telling me to go say hi to him. He kept whispering to me over and over, (the Lord, not the man. That would have been, um, unusual 🙂 ), but I kept shrugging Him off. I would have looked weird. The man may have rejected me. It just wouldn’t have been a good idea. Even as I left the restaurant I knew I dropped the ball. I knew I disobeyed. I knew instead of gushing with the Spirit I became like a child-proof bottle of medicine and by golly the lid wasn’t coming off.
I don’t want to live like that. I want to fear absolutely nothing and live with complete, reckless abandon for the Lord. He is the Orchestra Conductor (yup, another analogy) and we are His instruments. The Holy Spirit can pour forth from us whenever He wants, but often He asks us to react to His promptings first. I don’t know what would have happened had I gone and said hi to the man, but that wasn’t anything I had to be concerned about. I know the Spirit would have spoken through me. Regardless of the outcome, I would have been serving the man with the love of Christ and because of the love of Christ.
I think we are called to flood the world, all of the time and in every situation, with the Holy Spirit. He lives in us but it goes so far beyond a personal encampment. He resides in us so we can change the world with His power and love. Only the Lord knows how even the smallest interaction can lead to someone’s soul veil being lifted. If I could go back to that afternoon in the restaurant, I would in a heartbeat. I pray that at some point the man has felt how much He is loved by Love and that Christ is his everything. I’m so thankful the Lord offers forgiveness and also offers us chance after chance to reflect His might to those around us. So may we all be the kind of fire hydrants that have so much water flowing forth that the streets become flooded; flooded with love.
