Mankind is everywhere faced with a complexity of forces too great for us to fathom fully so to know and predict with assurance and accuracy. Society appears to have something of a latent feeling that the marvels of science (intellectual search for evidence, causes, and understandings leading to human action) will work us out of our problems in life, and we will find a holy grail that meets our needs. That grail is generally perceived to be lengthy, healthy life with resources adequate to human needs, with some means to manage nature’s furies. Developed societies have moved in that direction of learning, understanding and making applications, with some success, but never enough to meet the objectives. Part of an understanding of the overlaid problem is that mankind does not have adequate control of the sources of the largest causes of the issues needing to be addressed. If we did, we would not have the knowledge and ability to coordinate those causes to our benefit. In short, they are too great for us, too ephemeral, too complex, too powerful, and too foreign to our abilities. We do believe we are working toward better adjustments, and we should, but the matters are and will remain too remote from human editing and too great to be managed by human beings in the light of mortal contexts. Life and friendly environment ultimately runs out for us. The best mortal beings can do is to adapt to gain a few more years, and to adjust to depleting resources by finding means of recycling. Even with appropriate care the future suggests endings for life as we know it.
The Christian response to all this is found in the biblical explanation of the person of the Holy Spirit of God as a sustainer for earth’s life and action. There is little that we can know about the Holy Spirit, but much that we can know relative to his involvement in the world, but especially in the lives of those who are the followers of God through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is not limited to earth’s resources, knowledge, customs, orders, or whatever system we wish to use to explain the planet and the people. The availability of the Holy Spirit is most readily provided to the Christian in prayer. In answer to prayer God by his Holy Spirit accomplishes results, or withholds them. No one can predict the response except to believe that the response is best understood, whatever it may be, as the will of God. The only sensible explanation we can give is that this is the teaching of Scripture and the witness of assurance in faith that there will be response to be accepted and by which future belief and conduct may be indicated. Following carefully the laws of nature will provide a generally satisfactory life, but even that is temporary to death.
A part of the image of God in mankind is in the human spirit. That spirit may have its seat in conscience. It is seen in our inclinations and intuitions. It can be controlled, or it can control us. Following an inclination, and without time to think about what should be done, my friend deliberately chose, in a microscopic moment of time not to turn to the right to avoid an oncoming vehicle that suddenly swerved from a long moving line of traffic into our lane. That driver, responding as quickly as my friend took the shoulder to our right. We passed safely between two speeding vehicles going in opposite directions to ours. It appears that both drivers applied gut feelings to do what they were doing. Natural life is often interrupted by the human spirit, for good and ill. Is God at work in the human spirit? I believe that sometimes he is and sometimes he is not. The Christian hopes, and feels through faith, that he does – by the Holy Spirit. Nothing in the human scope of life can discover how and when all the details go together. We do know that there is a human spirit and research in the field is lively at the time of this writing. Persons following regimens of researchers are even taking psychedelic drugs to discover if there may be some answers that have eluded them in the search of what a person is in potential, threat, love, self-knowledge, and a dozen or so other characteristics. Jihan Thompson, pointed out: neuroscientists think it could unlock mysteries about consciousness and self-perception. Fumbling in psychology has helped me understand why God causes his Spirit to aid us. For the Christian the work of the Holy Spirit is partly to function in the life of the person of Christian faith so to find self and safety in a biblical faith that rests all matters of life in the work of the Holy Spirit of God in the world. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020