The Biggest Question of All: Part 3

It was Sunday again. It had snowed and our new little MG was covered in a white blanket. This was depressing and such a great excuse for staying home in bed. I debated letting another of the ten promises go. After all, I had only gone for two Sundays at this time. And it might be slippery on the roads. Gritting my teeth, I got out of bed and got dressed for church. I had to push the snow off of the little car with my gloves because we had not gotten a brush for snow. It was late Spring, and who would have thought it would snow again. UGH!

I did manage to get to church, but I was late and I was tempted to just turn back for our apartment. Still… I was asking the God of the universe to show up for me if he existed. I trudged through wet snow to the church and crept into a far back pew in a far back corner. The minister of this Presbyterian Church began his sermon on the Day of Pentecost in the Bible (since it was Pentecost that day on the church calendar) and the then very new movement within main denominational churches that had believers being “baptized in the Holy Spirit” just as the apostles had been in the Bible. He spoke about Charismatic gifts being exhibited by Presbyterians and that many people seemed to have found a new faith and a new sense of the presence of God in their lives. This made me take notice. Wasn’t this what I wanted?? The minister said that this was not necessary for all believers, and that he would exercise some caution, but that the Presbyterian Church leaders had studied scriptures and had issued a hesitant acceptance of this new movement now being called the “Charismatic Movement”. It was all right to seek the “deeper” walk with God, but it was not necessary. 

I had taken some notes on the edge of my program. I understood none of the things the minister had talked about, but I wanted to know if God existed. If people were getting baptized in the something called the Holy Spirit (I knew enough to know that we talked about the Holy Spirit in the Apostles’ Creed that my parents rejected), then probably I wanted that very experience. If it led to a closer walk with God then I guessed that was what I needed. Those people must know that he existed!

I went home with my notes and a rather heavy heart. How was I supposed to go about finding something as unknown and “mysterious” as the Holy Spirit, and how was I suppose to get “baptized” by/in it???

On Wednesday of the next week at school my best friend on the teaching staff was ill. Now that I sat at any open table in the lunchroom instead of the always over-filled “best” table, my friend’s substitute teacher, a pretty young woman named Ellen, came to my table at lunch and asked if she could sit with me. “Of course!” I happily welcomed her. During our lunch she noticed my cross.

“Are you a Christian?” Ellen asked.

I was surprised by that question. I had never been directly asked that.

“I am a Presbyterian,” I stated. She looked kind of thoughtfully amused at my answer. It would take me quite awhile to understand how much my simple statement had revealed.

“Have you ever heard of the Charismatic Movement?”

Wow!!! How in the heck did this Ellen know?

“Yes, my minister just spoke about that this past Sunday,” I answered a tad breathlessly. Please, Oh Please, tell me how, what, where! I was hoping against hope that Ellen would tell me something to lead me to the next step in my search. 

“Did you know that some leaders of many churches are holding a Charismatic Conference at the Presbyterian Seminary in town this weekend? It starts on Friday morning. I plan to go if I can,” Ellen said.

Oh, Wow!!!

Ellen went on to tell me that she and her husband were Christians, but they had gotten weary of trying to be typical churchgoers, and they wanted more reality in their experience of God. They had been searching for the baptism in the Holy Spirit ever since they had heard of this new move of God, but so far they had not received the “gift”. She was hopeful this conference was their opportunity to go for prayer, because many of the national and international leaders of the movement were going to be in town for the conference, and according to her, it was biblical for the “Gift of the Holy Spirit” to be passed down from one believer to another through prayer and having a person who had already received this gift put his/her hands on the person who was seeking.

It just so happened that our school district would be closed that Friday for a scheduled holiday. How lucky was that?? I asked Ellen to tell me how to get to the Presbyterian Seminary and if I needed to call for tickets or anything else. She sweetly gave me a ticket. It was an extra one her husband had gotten for a friend from out of town who was now not able to attend the conference. 

After that lunch, I was feeling hopeful. I had a place to go to find out about the Holy Spirit, a day off from school, and a ticket in my hand. Now to explain what I was doing on Friday to my husband.