The mighty wind brings us a new day

It is daybreak and I am listening to lively tones as a brisk breeze blows through wind chimes outside my window.  The new day is alive; wind upon chimes announces it.

In this Pentecost season wind is a compelling subject.  Only a Sunday ago we celebrated how the Spirit came as the sound of a mighty wind and something incredible happened!  People of different regions and languages heard and understood one another in each person’s own language, proof that the Spirit can take and transform, can bring a new day.  This is not simply a powerful account of past action, but is a promise to us for future possibilities.

And is this not the foundation for all ministry, the confidence that somehow the unpredictable, uncontrollable Spirit of God will use what we offer?  Our task is to offer, not control or fully understand.  As Jesus said, “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.” (John 3:8)

I again saw this holy truth being lived out over the past weekend – first at the Diocesan Council meeting and next in my visit to Trinity, Oroville.  Our Council meeting overflowed with ideas, proposals, evolving plans, dreams and more, all presented by the committees of Council who are doing extraordinary work.  Some items were approved; some were not.  But all were offered in confidence that God can use our efforts in ways well beyond our control or understanding.

At Trinity, Oroville, I had the privilege of sharing a Sunday with a lively congregation, steeped in ministry that flows from offering resources, small and large, for the Spirit to blow forward for God’s purposes.  My visit ended with a visit to a small community garden, just started, which will provide food for children in the community who rarely get fresh vegetables, or at times any food at all.

At present, there are only plots of soil, no signs of life or growth, just dark, lifeless, dirt. Yet there was an overwhelming sense that God’s creative power will do something with the seeds already planted, the offering made, and that hungry people will be fed.  A moving experience it was.

It is freeing to serve in trust that our task is to offer and that we do not have to control every outcome (as if we could) or direct how God will use our offering.  Or as the apostle Paul poignantly phrased it, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (1 Cor. 3:6)

May it be so for what we plant and water, and may we know the joy that such growth brings.