It’s eight o’clock in the evening here in Massachusetts. It’s July and it is eighty degrees. There is no breeze. Leaves are hanging still. Sunflowers are starting to lose their vibrancy because it has been many days since we had any serious rain that would concern someone with a convertible. I was thinking about John 3 this afternoon. Jesus told Nicodemus that God’s Spirit moved like the wind among the trees. What of an evening like this when there is no breeze? What of an era like this when there seems to be so little of God’s Spirit among the church? Hum? Perhaps I am being too harsh and overly critical. Usually that is our problem. We are parochial. If we don’t personally see something then it isn’t happening anywhere.
This might have something to do with our desire to be at the center of anything worthwhile. When someone tells me they were deeply moved last week in church my response is, “Oh, that’s nice.” Rarely do I stop and ask, “What was it? What was said? What was the point?” Instead it’s just a “that’s nice.” Since I didn’t hear it or even worse because I didn’t say it, it really didn’t matter much. Horrors.
But honestly I must say from my very narrow and limited view I don’t see much happening among God’s people. Paul wrote in Colossians, “(I) do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;” I like that prayer. This night I pray this for you and I do so desire that you do so for me.
Perhaps there is a mighty breeze all around me. Perhaps the dearth of fresh air is only located where I am sitting.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 9, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org