Have you ever noticed how much water and breath and wind and fire you find in the Bible? It's sometimes hard to keep track of whether to think of the Holy Spirit as "living water" or as "tongues of fire" or simply as something that is "God-breathed." Other people who've had to understand the physical world, have run into similar problems.

"Is this a gas or a liquid or a flame? I dunno. Let's call it a fluid!"

Thus was fluid dynamics born. Its purpose was to describe the movement of fluids in the physical world. Fluid dynamics are not meant to describe people. The last time anyone tried to describe people using fluids they came up with the four not-so-funny humors: black bile, blood, yellow bile, and phlegm. No one talks much about the four humors much anymore. But people talk about the Bible.

So let's see how fluids operate in the Bible. First, let's look at breath:

The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

Many believe that Genesis 2:7 is the first inspiring passage in the Bible! Another example of breath:

And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:22)

This is similar to the passage above, where God gives CPR to Adam, except now with the Holy Spirit flowing into the Apostles. And here's a third example of the usage of breath that we ought to think about when contemplating whether the Bible should be taken literally, figuratively or metaphorically:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16)

With this God-breathed passage God breathes God into the Bible! So we now see how words can be inspired, not just people.

Related to breath is that larger air-related fluid, wind:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

There's an emphasis here on God's invisibility and omnipresence, but also on the "dynamics" of the wind - it's always moving and moving unpredictably. And the wind tends to be controlled by God and not by people.

Next, we need to take a look at fire. We might think that fire isn't really a fluid, but have you ever used lighter fluid on a barbeque? Case closed. Here are several passages to ponder:

The god who answers by fire - he is God." Then all the people said, "What you say is good." (1 Kings 18:24)

I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one [who] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. (Matthew 3:11)

See also: Acts 2:2-4, 2 Kings 1:12, Deuteronomy 9:3, Deuteronomy 5:4, Acts 7:30, 1 Thessalonians 5:19

Fire is dangerous and emanates from God. It can consume and devour evil. For just a few, fire is the medium through which man comes face to face with God-as with Moses and the burning bush-and with the tongues of fire that land on the Apostles that are the initial sparks lighting the Holy Spirit brought by a wind from heaven. Note how the Holy Spirit is a fire as in "Do not put out the Spirit's fire."

Finally we come to water. Water shows up a lot in the Bible, usually with reference to the Holy Spirit:

The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. (Acts 10:45)

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit." (John 3:5)

See Also: 1 Corinthians 6:19, 2 Corinthians 1:5, John 4:14, John 19:34, John 4:10, John 7:38

Here we have "the Holy Spirit had been poured out." We have "a spring of water welling up to eternal life." We have entering the kingdom of God only if "born of water and the Spirit." We have the crucifixion itself with a "sudden flow of blood and water." And finally we have "living water." Now we're getting to real Christian Fluid Dynamics! Breath can inspire you, God is in the wind, Fire fires you up and sparks fly, but the spring of the Holy Spirit brings living water flowing from within! This is the fluid dynamics key to Christian life: keeping the Holy Spirit spring pure and flowing upwards. We don't want to let the spring dry up or to foul the spring. Both are bad, if not outright evil.

Normally, this would end the first lecture on Christian Fluid Dynamics 101, but there's another part of Christian Fluid Dynamics that's not fully explained in the Bible. It's understanding what "flow" means. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote a book about it. He called it "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience."

Here's what he had to say about the experience of "flow":

"Contrary to what we usually believe, ... the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times [but occur]when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record. ... Such experiences are not necessarily pleasant at the time they occur. The swimmer's muscles might have ached during his most memorable race, his lungs might have felt like exploding, and he might have been dizzy with fatigue - yet these could have been the best moments of his life. "

"The optimal state of inner experience is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy-or attention-is invested in realistic goals, and when skills match the opportunities for action. The pursuit of a goal brings order in awareness because a person must concentrate attention on the task at hand and momentarily forget everything else. These periods of struggling to overcome challenges are what people find to be the most enjoyable times of their lives."

"The concept of flow has been found useful... to illuminate religious experience."

Not all flow is the flow of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes playing a video game is a good example of flow. On the other hand, the flow of the Holy Spirit has some characteristics that overlap with Csikszentmihalyi's flow. For example, prayer would seem to be a "best moment" when one's mind is "stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." Prayer - communication with God - is "something we make happen."

And finally, the Holy Spirit gives "order in consciousness" when its "psychic energy" is "invested in realistic goals" and "when skills match the opportunities for action" in a Christian life.

For me, the most visible example of Christian fluid dynamics is someone whose eyes sparkle with love. There's also the guy at Thanksgiving - or was it the at the Last Supper - for whom this verse is fluidly dynamic:

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. (Psalms 23:5)

To respond to this message, email Stew at stewka@comcast.net.