Wind & PLE

Tonight has to be the windiest night in the history of 25th street. I just finished off one the crappiest papers I think I’ve ever written. It was supposed to be two pages long. That’s nothing for me. I love to write. However, after much reflection, I have managed to conjure up three paragraphs of fluff. That really sucks. And I’m trying hard to avoid my prof’s warning against PLE (principle of least effort), but I think I’m failing miserably.

Oddly, God seems to pick the most unexpected times to speak to me. Times of frustration. Weariness. Comical cat watching.

I was listening to the wind and a picture flashed in my mind from several years ago. One morning I left our house early before work and drove to the park (confession: I did this almost every morning). But this morning it was really early – as in the sun had just risen. This park overlooked a mountain, farmlands, and some rolling hills in Idaho. As I was sipping on my coffee, the wind was raging outside the car. I had been reading a section from the gospel of John, and as it often happens, I felt like God was trying to speak to me, but I couldn’t understand him.

Jesus compared his followers to 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” (jn. 3:8). What I find really frustrating at times is God’s silence. I just want him to explain things. But then again, maybe God isn't as silent as I think he is. Maybe I'm not really listening. In a world of instant gratification and automatic comfort, it seems like we’ve lost the art of sitting still and being silent.

I read Jesus’ statement several times, didn’t “get it,” and then just decided to sit still and enjoy the view. As I did I kept staring at this tree next to my car. It was swaying back and forth to the wind’s chaotic rhythm in a mesmerizing kind of way. In fact, the wind was so strong that not one part of the tree could resist movement. Every branch moved and every single leaf flickered in a million directions. How could something so ordinary suddenly transform into a thing of wonder? Maybe it was really no big deal, but for some reason I was captivated.

Then it happened. God whispered inside of me, “See that? That’s what I want to do with your life.” I read the text again, and it was clear. The wind’s presence is known predominantly by what it moves, even though we can all feel it and hear it. In the same way, we sense God’s movement and his reality by how he moves the people who yield to his rhythm. And he makes these people new by his spirit.

There are times in my life where I feel like I’m wholly joined with God and moving with him and in him. But there are other times when I am whole-heartedly resistant to him, doubting him and even frustrated with him. Then I hear the wind blowing outside (just like tonight), and I remember that morning when God transformed something really ordinary into something profound enough to reshape my being. And somehow this helps me push through my own resistance, doubt, and personal PLE.