It's the day before Pentecost, a Sunday thought of as the birthday of the church, when the Holy Spirit -- the very presence of God -- came into the church and gave it life.

As a part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is mysterious indeed, but also very promising, inviting, and challenging. (This Sunday, May 23, at Marble I will attempt to wade into the mystery with a class that looks at what this part of our faith means, and how is it perhaps rattling our cage. Please come at 1:30 or tune in at that time through live streaming.) The class is followed at 2:30 by a live Gospel Choir concert, "Breathe on Me."

Here is but one aspect of the Holy Spirit, one that seemed to be in many encounters I had with people today: The spirit of truth.

The client on the phone who was hungering for "authentic" encounters in both work and friendships. The woman who was dismayed that the nonprofit she gave so much time to was becoming less than transparent in its dealings. The woman next door who had just found out about a personal betrayal. In all these instances truth either blew in or was longed for: either way, it rearranges our furniture, which is classic Holy Spirit behavior.

Rev. Martin Smith has written about this aspect of the Holy Spirit as the "freedom which is gained only through exposure to the truth. The Greek word for truth literally means 'unhiddenness.' Truth is not a thing; it is rather an event. Truth happens to us when the coverings of illusion are stripped away and what is real emerges into the open." As it says in the Gospel of John 16:13: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth."

Unhiddenness. Emergence into the open. Illusions stripped away. There is a visceral, even ruthless tinge to "truth" here. Yet there is also the freedom on the other side of that emergence.

This hinge time in the church year, as the stone-rolling-away season of Easter opens into the winds and mystery of Pentecost, a season that will last all summer, ask yourself: Where in my life do I know, just know, freedom is waiting … and what hard but essential truth is the bridge that will get me to that open space?