Quakers, AA, and the Holy Spirit

We are leaving Ohio in two days, and I am both excited and nervous. This has been a good period of downtime to say farewell to family and focus on what is to come. I have issues at times with fatigue, so I have been resting quite a bit. Praying quite a bit.

I have to say that God has met me in some interesting places in my time here. I find it interesting that I grew up in this town called Salem, a town whose name was taken from Jerusalem. Growing up, our school mascot was a Quaker. Early settlers to this town were Quakers, and I neglected to understand the importance of Quaker spirituality in my youth. Ironically, it has been Quaker writers like Parker Palmer and Richard Foster that helped shape my prayer life later on in life. I often find God in profound ways during long periods of Quaker style contemplation and silence.

Last week, Bryan and I decided to attend a Quaker meeting in an old meeting house that was established in 1842. We had attended the Presbyterian church for an early service and had some time on our hands, so I suggested we go check it out. There were only ten people in attendance. From the moment we began the meeting, I was hit with a profound sense of the Holy Spirit. I could feel the intensity of shared faith over generations in that meeting place. It was so palpable it made my whole body tremble. When a woman finally shared, moved by the Spirit, her reading from scripture seemed to jump from the pages.

Later in the week, Bryan and I went away to Akron for the night while my parents watched the kids. Bryan happened to be reading one of those tourism guides that you find in hotel rooms and remarked offhand that Dr. Bob's house was open to view. For those of you who do not know, Dr. Bob was fundamental in starting up Alcoholics Anonymous with Bill Wilson. Dr. Bob and Bill met in that home, and AA was birthed and really fleshed out in that dwelling place. The next day we had some time, so I suggested to Bryan, "Hey, let's just go check it out." It was totally unexpected and unplanned.

When we crossed over the threshold of the door, there was a peace and serenity that again was so profound. When I got upstairs, I just started crying, both because I realized the interconnectivity of my life to what happened in this house and the incredible presence of the Spirit once again. There were all types of books on Christianity and works of the Holy Spirit in the archives. There never was any doubt in my mind that this was a Spirit driven organization; working the steps of AA is incredibly biblical in my opinion. Nevertheless, this experience helped further confirm this in my mind and actually made me realize even more the complexity of networking and connectivity in healing.

God is amazing.