Next…

Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit has descended. The Church is alive and the next movement continues. We are moving forward like a sailing ship on the waters toward the unknown that is beyond the horizon. What is beyond that horizon. I want to know and I suspect you want to know, too. The Bible makes it very clear that there is more out there beyond the veil.

Here we are in the presence of the active and breathing Holy Spirit! Jesus has told us what to do – “Go therefore and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Simple and, yet somewhat vague and intimidating. When given an order or expectation in life by someone else, sometimes we don’t have the experience to know what to expect. However, vague details help us get going. I like to bake cakes, because some of first impressions as a young boy were made standing beside my grandfather in the kitchen while he baked cakes for the family. He was the master in my eyes in many ways, but he could surely bake a cake! When he passed, I was eleven. I didn’t have details about how to bake yet. Some 10 years later, when I was better able to bake myself, I only had a few faded memories of how to bake that cake like he began to teach me. But I had enough experience to go for it. After multiple “almost successes” and four years of trying, I finally was able to replicate it. Now I’m teaching my youngest child, and she is eager take it to the next generation. She will surely pass it on to the next…and hopefully the next.

This allegory helps me think about the next things for us. What is next here on earth for the Church? What is next for you and me as we cross over to the other side of life? What have we been told and taught and what must we do? How do we pass forward the Faith of Christ? Some things we know and other things will have to be learned by just trying. Some things are learned by shear mistakes and others are learned through repeated success! Next!