The Familiar Stranger: (Re)Introducing the Holy Spirit to Those in Search of an Experiential Spirituality

by Tyler Staton

If you tell the story of the Holy Spirit apart from the world of suffering, you rip the story from its context and turn a gritty, real-life hope into a fairy tale—a hollow fable that’s entertaining in peace but powerless in chaos. This creates a false division between the heart of God and the power of God, a misconception that God is more present in a dimly lit auditorium full of inspired people than in a car stuck in traffic on a road trip.

It’s not that we don’t believe God could do it. It’s not even that we don’t believe God wants to do it. It’s that it takes an experience to awaken hope in those who have only ever swum in chaos.

It seems to me that the Christian life without experience of and reliance on the Holy Spirit works just fine—until it suddenly doesn’t. Without participation, “come and drink” is just a worldview.

And, of course, Felix is still waiting. He’s waiting on the day he lives in the redeemed city. Waiting for the God who will swallow up all his deepest desires in God’s consuming presence. Waiting on the chaos to subside once and for all. He’s waiting. But in the meantime? Felix has planted himself in the place where his wounds bleed hope to those similarly wounded.