Blow, Wind, Blow

I can tolerate the cold.  It’s the winter wind that wears me out. In fact, I think some of the most beautiful winter days are when the sky is crystal clear and the temperature is so cold that the snow crunches under your feet and moisture freezes on your eyelids.

But when the wind blows, it seems to blow right through you.  Rational, thinking human beings are reduced to operating by their survival instincts.  All we can think about is to get out of the wind.

As preachers are prone to do, I was thinking of sermon illustrations related to wind.  I thought of the account from Acts 2 of the first Pentecost when the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles and promised to all who believed in Jesus Christ.  On that first Pentecost, the Spirit’s arrival was punctuated with the sound of a rushing, violent wind. 

Several years ago, when I was a seminary intern in Michigan, there was a violent thunderstorm that passed through the area in the early morning hours of Pentecost Sunday.  As we drove to church for worship, we noticed several trees had fallen and the news broadcasted that many people were without electricity.  When we arrived at church, we greeted a woman whom we knew who dedicated a lot of her time to prayer.  She was able to joke, “I prayed for the Holy Spirit wind to blow on this Pentecost.  I wonder if I prayed too hard!”

We can joke, but we should also realize that the Holy Spirit does blow in the hearts of all who believe in Jesus Christ.  We’re slow to admit that the Spirit has to wear us out like a relentless wind before we can be shaped by God.  The Holy Spirit blows through us, not to chill us to the bone, but to warm us to living a devoted, grateful life for Jesus Christ. 

From the Canons of Dort, a confessional document used by churches from the Reformed tradition, we read that through the Holy Spirit, “God activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds. God also penetrates into the inmost being, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. God infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant. God activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds.” (Canons of Dort, 3^rd & 4^th Main Point, Art. 11)

This week, as we feel the wind blow, may it remind us to pray for our hearts’ defenses to be worn down by the Holy Spirit.  Instead of being chilled to our core, we pray that the Holy Spirit will blow like a wind, to open what is closed and take what is dead and bring it to new life.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will show us Jesus.