The Springs Of The Spirit

I took the advice of a grizzled camp host in Montana about the best time to arrive at Yellowstone National Park, which he described colorfully as "First thing in the damn morning." 

Because I could not book a campsite in the park proper, I had to wake up at 4:30 AM and drive nearly an hour to the North Entrance of Yellowstone near Gardiner, Wyoming.  

The drive was beautiful in the early dawn, and it followed the Yellowstone River nearly the entire route. In Gardiner, I was greeted by a herd of elk walking down the middle of the street near a local eatery called Outlaws—Pizza, Pasta, and Salad Bar. 

I'm not ashamed to say my excitement grew a bit more after that encounter. 

The first site you come to when you enter the northern entrance of Yellowstone is Mammoth Springs, which defies imagination. The natural hot springs cascade down hills that have turned red, orange, yellow, and white from the minerals the water contains.  

I hiked up to the top in the chilly morning air, enveloped in steam from the springs as they bubbled up and hit the surface.  

I felt small standing amid such incredible geothermal power and the unbelievable artistry at work on every hill the water touched.  It was almost too much to absorb at once.  

It made me realize how mysterious and wondrous Creation can be and that a new world was being created with every new direction that the springs sent the water to the surface.  I felt grateful to be able to witness it. 

I couldn't help but wax theological and philosophical about what I was experiencing because that's what I do.  It's both a blessing and a curse. 

As I took in Mammoth Springs's beauty, I began to think about how my faith journey has been marked by what has often felt like a bubbling hot spring within me.  There have been times when I felt like what was springing up could not be contained, no matter how hard I tried to keep it down. 

When I could no longer contain it, the flow that burst forth absolutely and dramatically changed the landscape of my life.

So many of us spend our lives trying to contain what longs to burst forth from the springs of our souls.  We are frightened of what might change and what will happen if we let the flow of the Spirit do the Spirit's work. 

We try to insulate ourselves from any eruption that will shake our status quo.  We choose what's comfortable when it comes to our beliefs.  We might even deny that there has been any transformation even as the evidence mounts against that denial. 

Sometimes, Religion can aid us in our delusions, explaining away the flow of the Spirit with doctrine and dogma and demanding blind obedience to poor theology and even poorer interpretations of sacred texts.  

But the Spirit is too crafty for all that and will continue to create, shape, and transform everything around us, even as we stand obstinately refusing to see the beauty being made before our eyes. 

God isn't done making all things new. 

Further, to think that all there is to know about God is somehow trapped in the ancient text is naive at best and misguided at worst.  

In my opinion, those kinds of efforts to contain God will always fail because God is always doing something in the world around us and even within us to show otherwise.  

Even as the world is being made new with the waters that rush to the surface at places like Mammoth Springs, we are being made new all the time, every moment by the rush of the Spirit in our lives.  

We can embrace it or deny it, but God will have God's way regardless.  

May we all discover the courage to see the newness being made within us and around us as a blessing, a joy and a thing to be celebrated.  May we learn to do everything we can to keep the springs bubbling, and the ground beneath our feet being made more beautiful and strange. 

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and forever. Amen.