Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Heart Thoughts from Helen

"The Blowing Wind"

The rugs on my patio blew past me like leaves in the wind. I held onto the door to keep it from blowing off the hinges. Howling, cold gusts up to 40mph (or so it seemed) persisted all day and all night. Anything not anchored blew away.

The wind blew in the year, 2010. And the wind still blows cold air across the foothills... I'm listening to it now as it whistles around the trees and the corners of the house. I can't see it, but I certainly hear it and feel the whip lash when I venture outside. Mercy! What a bad hair day. I thought the wind blew this way in March, not January.

Our Sunday School lesson on Sunday began with The Preacher in Ecclesiastes as he spoke of the wind. "The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes ever returning on its course." (Eccl. 1:6). The Preacher, Solomon, seemed to be in a deep hole throughout much of the book.

When I was a girl and nothing suited me, my mother taught me this little rhyme: Nobody loves me; everybody hates me. I'm gonna eat some worms. Little bitty fat ones, big long skinny ones. OOOOHHH boy, ain't they good!! It never failed to elicit a smile to blow away my morose mood. I wonder if Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, thought to cheer her son with some little silly ditty.

Solomon, in all his glory wasn't exempt from needing the cobwebs blown out of his head. January tends to be the month when we slow down from the holiday rush and yet we find ourselves wondering what's next. What will 2010 blow in? Will the well folks become sick and the sick become well? Will our financial futures improve or worsen? Will terrorists succeed in their ever determined mindset to destroy us? Will Jesus come again in 2010? 'The wind blows....round and round it goes ever returning on its course."

Jesus waxed eloquent about the 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)

The wind will blow some things into this year that we won't have a chance to change. We won't know whether we're coming or going. The Spirit of God blows the Word of God and implants it into our hearts to hold onto in the midst of the whirlwind.

James 1:6 "But when he asks (for wisdom) he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."

Solomon saw how needless it was to chase the wind. Jesus tells us that the wind cannot be traced but that neither can the Spirit of God be tamed. James says that it's not good to be doubters, tossed by the wind.

Personally, I have no desire to chase the wind, nor trace the wind nor be tossed about by the wind. I would, however, love to experience the mighty blowing of the breath of the Holy Spirit this year in our homes our churches, our nation and our world. I know that Pentecost will not happen again, but the wind outside reminds me of just how much we need a fresh wind from heaven to blow in 2010.

Acts 2:1-2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting."

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