As I sat on the patio out front of our house, the fussy southeast wind tossed the trees all around...bending the palms in our neighbor's yard, swishing the leaves of our live oak. While I sat there, I began to hear more...the 'little' sounds that the wind was bringing. The laughter of a child three houses up floated down to me. The rattly 'clunk-clunk' of a discarded beer crossing the street came to me. Across the street, a bit of loose Christmas decoration flapped in the wind. In the distance, the siren of first responders rose and fell with the intensity of the wind.
Wind is air moving...and it moves in a particular direction. As I sat there listening to the sounds on the wind, I realized that I was uniquely placed to hear what the wind brought me that evening. The lady who lives on the street behind us heard none of these things. Oh, she heard the wind in the trees—the BIG noise, but I was the one who heard the laughter of that child . The couple who lives six houses east of us would not have heard the can skitter across the asphalt—they were up-wind. The old fellow who always sits out in his carport watching the world go by, some five houses west of us, would not have heard the flapping decoration that caught my ear even though he was down-wind—the noises just weren't loud enough for him to hear. Yes, the wind brought these sounds to me...and I had to hear, reflect and/or act on them....
Jesus teaches us that God's Spirit is a wind...or maybe he was teaching that God's Wind is the Spirit? “Wind” and “Spirit” are the same word in Jesus' Aramaic and the Gospel-writer's Greek. Perhaps God's Spirit-Wind brings 'little' sounds just for you and just for me. Where we stand in life may position us to hear something that no one else is going to hear. Maybe the cry of that child (or teenager or adult) comes only to your ears...maybe that irritating 'flapping' or 'clunk-clunk' of something out of place, of something not right, of something calling for rightness or justice comes only to your ears.... And, you—the only one who hears these small sounds in our roaring world—you are the one who must act.
If the Spirit indeed works this way, much would be explained. How many times has someone—after hearing a sermon or reading a Scripture passage—come away having heard or read something that completely eluded us? Could it be that a particular breeze was blowing in their direction?
This calls me to realize that God's Spirit may speak to us in a way that no one around us hears. When I sit in worship and the pastor calls on the congregation to help feed a village in Malawi, I can no longer say, “Oh, there are plenty of other people 'hearing' this—they'll give.” No, now I realize that God may be blowing a message, a call that only I can hear, that only resonates in my heart. Now I realize that a song that fills me with joy can bring another to broken tears; a sermon that grabs my heart my leave others only curiously interested; the images of a child in Ecuador may call me to open my hands generously but may call a young couple on the next pew to sell it all and move to South America.
Finally, to hear the 'little' sounds in the wind, we have to be in the wind. If I stay in my home with the windows closed up tight and the TV on, the sounds on the wind would pass my by...along with the opportunities to respond. To hear the small sounds, we have to be in the wind...and listening. Even if I sit in a house of worship, I may only hear about the wind or only hear what others have heard...and not really hear the wind for myself. Yes, I need to get outside, sit in the wind, let it surround and caress me...and open my ears to hear what sounds of life and need and opportunity and possibility and purpose are being brought to me, in my particular place and time.
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....
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit....
~Jon~
