Awaiting the Spirit

In both Greek and Hebrew one word means spirit, wind, and breath. When Paul writes that God’s Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God, he describes a kind of conspiracy—a breathing together—between God and us. To conspire simply means to breathe together.

As a theater student I learned a number of improvisational games that we played as a group. To play one of those games, called “parts of a whole” or “machine,” each person makes a particular sound or action. In short, we created a machine with our bodies, with each part having its particular sound or motion like no other part but moving in rhythm with all the other parts. We could speed the machine up or slow it down at the very same rate. Sometimes the person instructing the game would ask us to slow the machine until it stopped. Then he or she would tell us to begin again all together “on the breath.” This meant that all of the parts of this machine (the players) had to listen carefully to the breathing of all the others. Once our breathing synchronized, we could begin to move once again all at the same time. When that happened it was magic.

I wonder what it would be like to pay such close attention to God that our breath synchronized with God’s breath, our desires and hopes synchronized with God’s desires and hopes for us and for the world. At that point we could enter into a truly divine conspiracy, our breath witnessing with God’s breath that we, and all people, are God’s beloved children.