I grew up differently than many of you. I grew up in the Christian subculture. This means that I saw a lot of things that were amazing, and I saw a lot of things that were weird. And, quite frankly, I saw a lot of things that were amazingly weird.
One phenomena that I observed while growing up was the labeling of people with "spirits". Church members whom I regarded highly were good at doing that. Actually, they were great at it. They always knew who had what spirit. Over some post-church meal (we had a lot of those), they'd sit around discussing who had a spirit and how we could all pray for them.
The deacon who left the church had a "divisive spirit". The clerk at J. Crew in the mall had a "gay spirit". The neighbor kid who wore RATT t-shirts had a "rebellious spirit". And the woman in the short dress at church this morning? Well, she obviously had a "seductive spirit". (I didn't know what a seductive spirit was, but I distinctly remembered seeing this woman, and I wasn't nearly as repulsed as everyone else seemed to be.)
It was amazing to me how effortlessly these grown-ups could identify such spirits and dispense these labels. How did they do that? How did they know that? I wasn't nearly as spiritual as they were because I never guessed right. I once thought my sixth grade nemesis had an "argumentative spirit," but when I confronted him on the playground he turned out to have "violent spirit". That was a painful lesson.
I have since come to learn that the spiritual labeling that I observed as a young Christian was nothing more than name-calling. It was spiritual name-calling, but name-calling, nonetheless. It was mean, it was vindictive and it was usually wrong. Not everything is a spirit.
Does the Bible speak of demonic spirits and angelic beings? Sure. Are we engaged in a spiritual battle? Yes. Is the Holy Spirit's work current and active? Absolutely. But that does not change the fact that we have physical bodies and live in a physical world. Not everything is explained by unsubstantiated spiritual accusations. Not everything is mystical.
I believe that as Christians we must be careful with our spiritual compulsions and our spiritual labels. Maybe the guy with the "negative spirit" just has a bad attitude. Maybe the chick with the "sullen spirit" is just sad today. Maybe the dude with the "Absalom spirit" just needs to be fired. And maybe the lady with the "seductive spirit" is just wearing a good push-up bra. Sometimes the explanation is simple. Sometimes spiritual labels don't apply. Sometimes name-calling isn't necessary.
But then again, I could be wrong. Maybe I have a naïve spirit.
(originally posted on August 17, 2010)
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