​5.Faith Formation: What Does Holiness Mean for Us Today?

            What comes to your mind when you hear the word “holiness”? I’m afraid that I often think of the phrase “holier than thou.” It’s quite common to be outwardly religious in an off-putting that makes others uncomfortable and feeling condemned.
            I prefer to think of holiness as related to the gifts of the Spirit that Paul lists in Galatians 5:22-23. These are gifts of transformation, not things we achieve through our own will power.

• Humility: a willingness (hypothetically, at least) to wash the feet of someone who has not “earned” your love but whom you love, nevertheless, as Christ loved his very imperfect disciples.
• Peacefulness: a kind of understanding of God that surpasses a purely cognitive agreement of doctrines about God
• Suffering: a condition we’d prefer to avoid, but which is biblically attested to be potentially a sharing in Christ’s own life.
• Loving-kindness and compassion: a desire to ease the suffering of others (certainly not to inflict it) because—to use a cliché—you feel the other’s pain. (Etymologically, compassion means “to suffer with.”)
• Knowledge of God: you can see God in the needs of the other person
• Love for enemies: you feel no hatred or anger for someone who has mistreated you (or, alternately, you regularly turn to God for healing of your hatred).
• Contentment: a tranquility independent of your circumstances
• Joy: not just happiness and mirth (wonderful and essential as those are) but a confidence that you understand the meaning and direction of life.
• Avoidance of certain circumstances: those wherein you might succumb to a temptation to which you’re prone, and you know yourself well enough to know your weaknesses.

            ​These are gifts of the Spirit’s “new creation.” We, in turn, can open ourselves to the Spirit's love as we seek to understand more fully the depth of God's love.
 
 
Questions
1.Which of these gifts of Spirit seem harder for you than others? Do you feel that you’ve been blessed with particular gifts?
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2.How are these gifts demonstrated in your life?