Emphasis Preaching Journal

Concerning the Holy Spirit, Frederick Buechner writes in his book Wishful Thinking the following: "The word spirit has come to mean something pale and shapeless, like an unmade bed. School spirit, the American spirit, the Christmas spirit, the spirit of '76, the Holy Spirit -- each of these points to something you know is supposed to get you to your feet cheering but which you somehow can't rise to ... "Like its counterparts in Hebrew and Greek, the Latin word spiritus originally meant breath ... and breath is what you have when you're alive and don't have when you're dead.