Osler's Razor

For most of my life, the idea of the trinity was pretty much meaningless. I got what the three parts of the trinity were--God, Jesus, Holy Spirit-- but it did not intersect much with how I thought about faith.

Like a lot of things relating to my faith, that changed once we started to do the Trial of Jesus and I had to dig in deeply to the Gospels and study almost everything Jesus said and did in preparation for using it in the case. I had to reconcile and connect Jesus both to the Old Testament and to our own time.

That is when the trinity fell into place. Each part is eternal, but our interaction with each changes with epoch. Before Jesus, the Jews saw themselves as directly interacting with God. While Jesus was on Earth, people directly interacted with him. In the era since, we directly interact with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised.

What does it mean to live in the era of the Holy Spirit, who Jesus said would come after him? In part, I think, it means we are left with principles and reason and what it is that Jesus taught, and that there is within us a counselor that guides us.

There are at times what I think of as "Holy Spirit Moments," where I intensely feel that counsel and comfort. Sometimes it even brings transcendence.  It is... a hard thing to describe, but very real, and very important of late.