Between the answers, we are not alone.

I want to suggest three promises from the readings this morning.

There’s a promise of direction. But until we get that, there’s a promise of presence. And while we are living in the presence, there’s a promise of future meaning.

Let’s unpack those for a moment.

In the story we’ve been looking at, we can find a promise of direction. Paul was stopped, perhaps through voices and visions, but perhaps through circumstances. Paul made plans, and didn’t simply sit around waiting for voices, but he was aware that some of the roadblocks and some of the permissions were the direction of God. They were not punishment.

So at times, our pausing and delays are not the judgment of God, they are the direction of God. We can, as Paul says elsewhere, learn contentment in our circumstances.

Waiting for answers, waiting to get there, waiting to go… sometimes the direction is to wait and to rest and to recover and to prepare.

But we also see a promise of presence.

When Jesus talks to the disciples during his last meal with them, he talks about leaving, but assures them that he is not leaving them alone. “The Father, in my name, on my behalf, is sending an advocate, the Holy Spirit.”

And the Spirit’s job? Among other things, to teach us, to remind us of everything that Jesus said.

So in the moments that we are wondering what to do or what to think or what to say, and out of the blue we remember words from Jesus, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. Using however much or little of God’s words we know.

But the emphasis is not on what we will be able to do or how well things will turn out. The emphasis is on the presence of the Spirit.

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Part two of a reflection for the hospital chapel service.