Is this the most difficult truth for us to accept?  Can we really believe that within these bodies of ours - young, old, diseased, healthy, abused, idolized-within this fragile, miraculous physical system of blood and muscle and sinew and organ and bone, there dwells the divine Spirit of the One who created us?  Will we accept this reality?

I used to think that people denied their own holiness because they felt unworthy.  They didn't like to mix up the sacred divinity of  God/Jesus with the mundane mortality of their humanness.  Of late, however, I am more inclined to think that we hesitate to believe this because it demands so much of us.  If, as Jesus promised, there abides in us his very own spirit, then we are capable of great goodness and awesome kindness and powerful healing and endless generosity and eternal love, right?  Yikes!

God of all creation, source of all goodness and 

ground of all being; your Son Jesus gave to us his spirit, 

the Advocate, the Spirit of truth, to teach us,

 to remind us of all that he said and did on earth, 

and to empower us to do greater  works even than he did.  

Help me to accept this reality, to honor your Spirit within me, 

and to draw upon your power to save 

even as I walk this earthly path, 

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.