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The Wind Blows

Rob Bryceson • September 26, 2022

John 3:8

The other night I was sitting on my front porch as the wind picked up and blew through the trees in the park across the street. I watched them sway and dance to the music of the breeze whipping through them. The ebb and flow of the intensity of the wind created an almost sing-song cadence and rhythm that matched their dance. It wasn’t cold. I wore just a light sweater, enough to keep me warm. It seemed the intensity of the breeze was about 30-50 feet above me. I wasn’t experiencing the full impact of the wind as I was tucked under my little alcove on the front porch. It was strangely intense and calming at the same time. I did not try to fight it or avoid it, but simply relaxed and listened to its song and watched it create its dance.

I thought of how the breeze was blowing from west to east. It doesn’t always come from this direction. Sometimes it moves differently. Today this was the movement. I thought about where the wind had been, where it might have started, which I could not know and realized that it was on a journey with which I could not possibly keep up. I couldn’t find its past nor be there in its future. It would be miles away before I could possibly keep up. I could only experience it in this moment.

I thought of the verse from John 3:8 where Jesus tells Nicodemus “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.”
Sometimes the wind is soft and barely perceptible, other times the wind is the most dominant force around us, and everything is observed and measured by the power of wind. The Holy Spirit is like that. Sometimes we can barely perceive His work and the effects of this influence are completely overlooked. Other times we see the power and presence of God in such manifest ways that all our actions, decisions, values and desires are measured by our experience of the Spirit’s song and dance in our lives. 

But we don’t know where his actions originated in our lives, and we can’t possibly keep up with where He is going. He moves through and in us to affect others and the influence he has on us can affect other people and cause other actions miles distant, and long into our future. We can only live in the moment.  Perhaps today, in this moment, it’s a good time to sit and listen to the cadence of the Spirit and see if you can tell what Jesus is doing in your own heart and life. 

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