“The wind blows
where it wills and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where
it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the
Spirit.”
This image the Lord uses, the wind
and the Spirit, is a powerful one. There
is an inherent contrast in this between the wind, blowing where it wills, and the
opposite - being tied down, secured, grounded you might say. Something in me likes being tied down,
secured, grounded. Likes not having to
face change. Likes the things the way
they are, or better yet, the way they used to be. Something in me rebels against the seeming
randomness of the wind – the randomness that He describes “everyone who is born
of the Spirit.”
Yet in my own life, I can see (and
only with hindsight can I see clearly, I might add) I can see how the Spirit
has been at work, blowing here and there, but leading me to new things and ever
greater discipleship. It was the Spirit
who inspired Pam and me, at the time in a very dark and scary place in our
marriage, to make a Marriage Encounter weekend.
That weekend literally saved our marriage.
It was our involvement with Marriage
Encounter that led our family to go away to Catholic Family Camp for our summer
vacation five out of six years. And the
powerful experience of Family Camp was one of the main places where I heard the
Lord whispering to me, calling me to the permanent diaconate – to eventually quit
what the world sees as a great job, to go back to school in middle age, and to
devote much of my and Pam will tell you – our – free time to this ministry.
And only the Spirit can tell you
where it will lead from here! I am sure
that each of us can look back and see how the Spirit has blown this way and
that throughout our lives, leading us from all over to join in community here
at 6:30 this morning, listening to His Word and receiving His Body in
Communion.
I think what the Lord is saying to
us is this – while we naturally like to be tied down, secured, in-control,
unchanging - to live in the Spirit, to live the fully Christian life, we are
called to cut the ropes that tether us and let the Spirit move us where He
will. That is what the Lord is saying it
means to be born again – to be born from above.
To live in the Spirit, and to be open to all of the changes God has in
store for us. To follow Him wherever He
goes.
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