Sometimes the Spirit has to give us a shove in order to get us out into the world of pain and brokenness. We do not go voluntarily. The church never has. The pattern in the Book of Acts is that the Spirit scatters us, usually through some kind of hardship like persecution, in order to place us where we need to be for the sake of the world. This seems an odd strategy for one we call the “Comforter.”

The comfort that the Spirit gives, however, is not coddling. It is not the growth-restricting, maturity-inhibiting protectiveness of a helicopter parent. It is not the comfort of avoidance, not the reassurance that we will never have to do anything hard and painful, but comfort in the midst of the hard and painful things that God calls us to do. Words like “lamentation” and “ravaging” punctuate this text. The truth is we will never know just how powerful the Spirit’s comfort is until we’ve experienced it in the very midst of our most intense trials.

More to the point of Acts 8, we will never be truly effective as witnesses in the world until we have endured brokenness. The proof of Jesus’ resurrection power is in the ability of his disciples to endure the world’s hostility without compromising our holiness and love. Therefore, just as Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to the face the deception and hostility of the Devil, so are his disciples driven by the Spirit to the far corners of the earth to face the deception and hostility of the world.

Verse 4 is especially inspiring in this regard. When the disciples, who up to this point had been huddled together in a concentrated community in Jerusalem, were finally scattered like billiard balls by the forceful “cue ball” of the Spirit, they did not go into hiding. Rather they went everywhere sharing their hope and joy. They covered this hopeless and joyless globe with an irrepressible joy and hope that persecution could not diminish. In fact, their hope and joy gave them a supernatural perspective on their suffering such that it only confirmed their salvation and strengthened their solidarity with Christ and with each other.

These thoughts lead me to think about Scripture’s warnings not to resist or quench the Spirit. In the light of Acts 8, I now read these warnings a little differently. When I resist the hard things, the painful things, and avoid suffering at all costs, I am actually resisting the Spirit. I am pushing back against the Spirit’s loving shove into the brokenness and messiness of the world. Ironically, far from securing for me joy and comfort, this resistance deprives me of the greatest joy and comfort imaginable – the supernatural and eternal joy and comfort of Father, Son, and Spirit – the God who chose to enter into our angst and to participate in our pain.

Father,

Thank you for sending your Spirit into the world that your Spirit might give us the shove we need to get out of our comfortable and confining enclaves and into the world of brokenness and pain. Forgive us for resisting your Spirit by retreating further and further into our protective shells, like spiritual turtles or snails. Lord Jesus, thank you for letting the Spirit shove you into the wilderness. Thank you for showing us how to submit to the Spirit’s guidance into the darkness, toward confrontation with the forces of evil that hold humanity and all creation hostage. Holy Spirit, thank you for the kind of comfort that refuses to coddle, refuses to stunt our growth or to dim our witness. Lead on, Holy Spirit, and we will follow. We would know the resurrection power of Christ that you impart to those courageous enough to enter the most broken and painful places. We would know the supernatural and eternal comfort that you give to those unafraid to suffer with Christ for the world. We would know the joy of joining Christ in both his suffering and his glory.

AMEN