“The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” -John 3:8
I love the ocean. I think I have always loved being at sea. As a former sailor and captain of an 85 foot schooner, I know how important is it to be in a close relationship with what the wind is doing and how you understand the impact a passing system may have on your voyage planning and execution.
There are many indicators that can be used to determine the true wind speed and direction as opposed to the relative wind across the deck based on the ships heading and speed. So, our direction and speed impacts our experience of the wind. An April northerly wind off the coast of Halifax is experienced very differently if one is heading north at 15 knots or south at the same speed. The course you are on makes all the difference in your experience of the wind.
The spiritual life has us dependent on discernment of the Spirit in the midst of the sustaining winds of our culture, which seems to breed a rat-race logic of competition and materialism. How do we shape our course knowing the prevailing wind has an impact on our journey. An easterly wind can be experienced as southerly gust, if your surroundings are impacted by a nearby headland. There are many tangible realities that impact how we experience the wind. There were times I celebrated a high cliff that blocked the wind when being propelled by the engines. Other times, the great cliff was an impediment if under sail and I needed to maintain my heading. There are many factors when one is dependent on the wind, just as there are inherent risks associated by how you respond to the prevailing conditions.
Jesus teaches us that a life fully alive is one of rebirth in the Spirit. He is not teaching that we will therefore be blown about as if aimless without a rudder. As witnesses to spirit and truth who have been on this journey for a while, we know and can testify to life-giving truth of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We have judged it to be true in spite of the storms that can blow, and the sustaining wind of the culture around us. The latter can sap us of courage, diminish our sense of risk and hold us back from sacrifice and service.
Christendom is done. The fair winds of comfortable cruising with the ship set to autopilot are done, and the reading from Acts today (4:32-37) gives witness to how far we have been blown off course.
We need all hands on deck, and both hands on the rudder, as we navigate through these troubled waters. We need the risky courage to trust that we are being led through this storm of our present age, and all its suffering, by Christ, whom we lift high, just as Moses did with the serpent in the desert.
How do you trust in the midst of a storm? What is the Spirit causing to well up inside of you? What is the Spirit staying to the Church today? How are we called to bear witness in spirit and truth today?
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