Wind Talker II

A mid-summer moment …

And so the story begins;

 It was mid-summer this year and I awoke peaceful, enjoying the early morning in the small garden at the back of the house. It’s a man’s garden full of pepper plants, tomatoes, blackberry bushes. Tart and spicy.

 Tending the garden that morning, there it was, a faint almost whispy, dreamlike memory that quietly floated through the thoughts of my mind. It was like an elusive dream of the night. Hard to hold. It created curiosity and an inventory of the past.

And as the memory became stronger I held it best I could because it awakened the distant far away ‘Tom Sawyer’ days of my childhood. Did this happen? It seemed real. But was it real? So, I was like; Jesus, where did this come from and where is this headed???  

Just so happened that I had the opportunity to discuss the memory with a friend in the next few days. As the English say, ‘In a calm sea every man is a pilot’! Sometimes it helps to have an expert helmsman to navigate through the doubts, the uncertainty.

You can tuck parts of your life far away from sight and memory because they have such strong emotions attached to them. Emotions that are powerful, intimidating and can be painful. They are easily stored out of sight and mind. Obviously, I had carefully hidden and avoided (the memory) deep inside in my soul. But there it was, the whisper memory gained momentum and the surreal became real. From the depths it surfaced in my world of today. Difficult but there. This wasn’t about being locked in the basement and fed with a slingshot and bottled water thrown at you. But it was real and something I habitually endured in those formative years.

Folks dealt with problems differently then than now. Someone said, the past is like a different world where people did things differently. But although, inflicted trauma and shame have the same effect now as then. That doesn’t change. As I talked to my friend, acknowledge the memory. Visited its intensity. I thought, all’s good, right?

Well, it was until it wasn’t…  I awakened the next morning. Interestingly, with some very intense anger. Anger has good moments and those not so good. Anger can be long-suffered. For instance, I was in the shopping mall when they still existed before Covid.

A young woman with three mini-her’s in tow and obviously on a shopping mission in the shopping mall. Moving rapidly towards me, she was wearing a T-shirt that read “you’re bugging me”! Ohhhhh! I thought because I knew what she really meant, I’m angry. I’m angry at you and you and you and you. Because she was angry, period. That anger probably from somewhere in her past had traveled through the seasons of her life was now on the outside. The anger was being displayed externally and it was an effective form of communication. Sure stopped me from saying, good morning how are you today?

So, I held it, the anger and like a gentle breeze on a Texas plain can become a full out hard blow, the anger intensified. I know why I was angry but also knew it was mine and not for the world around me. I had no intentions of letting it, the anger, get outside of me. So, no T-shirt.

 Like the strong winds of my beloved High Plains come they also subside and then they are gone. And I love those moments. Like those winds the anger subsided and then it was gone. Didn’t know it was coming and don’t know where it’s gone. I heard it, felt it. Then gone! And it has stayed gone. Jesus is like, I was in the tempest but I got your six.

And, unlike what Kansas sang, I’m not dust in the wind … It didn’t blow me away it rooted me deeper in faith. And I paused and thought —how often I’m amazed by the Holy Spirit’s activity in my life.

In Jesus' day, He called the religious leaders of that time names, confronted them, told 3rd person stories in which they recognized themselves as the object of His scorn and rebuke. It angered them, He angered them. He also clearly said you don’t understand God nor the Kingdom of God. Because you people don’t have a clue!!! I am here to explain it to you. By the way you really should as the spiritual leaders of a nation ordained to be a blessing to the nations. You have failed miserably.

These were Jesus’ words, I am going to take this Kingdom from you and give it to others so this Kingdom will be a blessing to the nations. (paraphrased)

Here’s a big-time conversation with a big time spiritual leader of that day:

 John 3:1-10 NIV

1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

8 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.”

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?

Teacher, I know you’re [from] God because of what you do for people but help me understand what this Kingdom is and how you live and move in it. (Paraphrased) Jesus said, you must be both born of water and born of the Spirit. So, Nicodemus you must be born again … and I get what church world has turned that into … a walk to the front, a confession and a prayer, all is well. But let’s say it this way, a new origin requires a new birth. Therefore, Nicodemus, you must be born again - again! This time from above because you can’t enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born again. As one enters the Kingdom of God their nature begins to transform. Jesus said, the wind comes for those awakened through new birth as the activity of the Kingdom of God in you. It is so for everyone born of the Spirit.

As Dallas Willard says in, ‘The Scandal of the Kingdom’.

“Like the wind, the Spirit comes and moves in the lives of individuals so that they become of or from the Kingdom of God. People see the results, but they can’t see what causes the results. This is abundant life in its fullest sense — life lived from hidden sources that come into the soul from God and His Kingdom. Such life is possible no matter where you are or what you happen to be doing. So, Jesus explains the Kingdom and how it sometimes works in the life of a follower transforming them into being more [of] the Kingdom of God.”

Listen up, this makes life in the Kingdom of God powerfully individual which can frighten folks. Because … it might get personal! Can you go through the list? Woman at the well, Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene, and on.

 Therefore, when it comes to the nuances of my soul, and sometimes very ruptured soul I generally don’t have a clue. But I trust God knows best when the Spirit Wind should blow. Where and how it should blow in my life. But I can’t make that happen. And a huge point here; I also can’t control it, predict it, can’t get it in a bottle, can’t package it and sell it at the front or back of the church. It has its own origin, the will of the Father. It is like the wind. It blows where it wants.

Nicodemus, I am like the wind and so it is with all that are born of the Spirit. It fills the life of the believer with soothing breeze and sometimes tempest storm. And Jesus said that’s how the Kingdom sometimes works. I am not suggesting that you do these, but for me, when the wind is more intense and you might get blown away, I follow some Find The Good Way Practices’: stay present, stay attached, stay quiet, stay open, stay humble, be grateful because I don’t and can’t predict the redemptive way the Kingdom acts in behalf of a child of God. But I do know that God knows and wants what’s best for each of us.

Most mornings there is a sense of the gentle joyful winds of connection, it is as it should be with the Jesus and me. But if the wind blows hard, I try to stay present by embracing the above practices. It limits the debris field! Family, friends and associates don’t get blown away.

The essence of the Kingdom of God in you is by nature; a well-attended relationship that gives off an alluring fragrance of being chosen. Of being loved and loving the one who chose you.

 In the Song of Solomon, which by the way I don’t think for one minute is a book about your sex life, is the story of being chosen. “I am my beloved’s and He is mine”. The writer of the song invites the wind:  “Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden (my life), that its fragrance may spread everywhere.”  (Brackets mine) So, the writer doesn’t hesitate to ask for both; the hard North winds that bring the cold of winter and death - the South winds that bring the warmth of spring and new life. Because there is no new life without death. And isn’t that the story of redemption?

 Here’s what I so admire concerning Jesus; He is and always will be un-boxed and un-tethered when it comes to His Joy, that would be us. I love His daring actions that redeem me from my fallenness and then, restore my soul to the goodness inside His world.

 Lyrics from the old hymn,

This is my Father’s World by Maltbie D. Babcock:

This is my Father's world!

He shines in all that's fair;

In the rustling grass I hear Him pass—

He speaks to me ev’ry where,


And so it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

 

Let Nothing Disturb You,
Paul Cypert
www.findthegoodway.org