Wind

One of my favorite scenes from the surf movie Noah's Arc is a scene where the characters are fooling around during a hurricane in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The wind is so strong that at one point one of the guys is hanging from a street sign and his body is completely parallel to the ground. Another shot shows the guys getting knocked over as they try to walk down the street against the wind.

The wind is a pretty amazing thing when you think about it, if you think about it. One day it can be so calm to barely move a flag, and the next day so strong that it can knock buildings over and cause serious damage.

I am always checking the wind. In the surfing world, wind dictates a lot. It can change the calm ocean into a sloppy mess thats not even worth paddling out in. Their is also mystery in the wind, what makes it blow the way it does, where is it going (John 3:8). Just the fact that the wind is unseen is quite mysterious.

Have you ever wanted to be invisible? I know I have. I sometimes wonder what I would do if I were invisible. I could sit and listen in on peoples conversations, I could fall asleep and no one would know, and I could play little tricks on people. I know its terribly wrong of me, but if I was invisible I think i would dictate most of my time to messing with peoples heads. You know taking things and moving them after they put them down, tapping them on the shoulder, whispering things to them when it appeared they were alone. I guess its good for all of us that I do not have the ability to be invisible.

Now even if i was invisible, I could still be found out. I mean if there was a plate floating across the room, and people knew me and my ability, they would know i was in the room with them. People wouldn't notice me as much as they would notice the things I did. Its like when you get to know someone really well, and you can just tell that they had been in the room before you. There are like trademark signs to their presence.

Whenever I go into the bathroow after my younger brother Mark showers, there is no mystery to who was in the bathroom before me. Its like a whirlwind of towels, dirty clothes, and a hair dryer. I have come to learn how my brother leaves the bathroom when he is done with it. I can go in after he is done and not see him at all and know that he was in the bathroom. Now i guess someone could go in and leave the same mess as mark, and I would just assume it was mark, but really honestly who would do that. You see certain people do things in a certain way, and leave their mark on places they have been, which lets you know they were there. Its their trademark. Its like in Home Alone, the two bandits decide that they are going to be called the wet bandits, and after they rob a house, they clog up the sinks and run the water. It was their trademark, when the cops walked in, they would know right away that it was in fact the wet bandits that were the culprits.

The wind also leaves its mark on things, and you more or less know that it has been there. Sometimes there will be a storm in the middle of the night, that will start after I fall asleep and end before I wake up. When i go outside in the morning and see branches in the street, tree limbs fallen down, and my trash cans halfway down the street, I know that it was a windy night. Often the next day someone will say to me, "Could you believe that wind last night"? Now there is nothing other than the evidence of the wind for me to believe that it was windy. I mean wind is invisible. Even on the windiest days if there is nothing in sight and you are in a quiet building how would you know?

I remember back in the day when DC Talk was popular in the christian music world, they had a song called "Minds Eye". Now in this song they play a clip of Billy Graham. This short sound file is a quote of his in which he says, "Can you see the wind? I have never seen the wind, but I have seen the effects of the wind. What Billy Graham was getting at was the mystery of the wind compared to the mystery of an invisible God. Often people ask how we can prove that God is real. In the world we live in seeing is believing, many people dont understand what faith really is (Hebrews 11:1). So Billy Graham would refute them by saying, sure I have never seen God, but have you seen the wind? Their answer of course would be no. And he would say I have seen the effects of the wind, so I know it exists, in the same way I have seen the effects of God on my life, so i know he exists.

Sometimes in our lives we dont see what God is doing. We wish we knew why he put us in our life situation, we wish he would deliver us from it. We wish he would help us to get a better job, get a significant other, or get out of financial trouble. And its hard to know that God is working because we can not see him working with our physical eyes. Its like I said about not being able to see the wind if there isnt a flag or something to show it is there. But think back on your life to the times when God delivered you, to the times God carried you, to the times you worried and shouldnt have. Often when i look back at tough times in my life, when I was in them i didnt see God working in them, but now that I have gotten past them, I see the effects of what God did in that. If you are having trouble worshipping a God unseen, dont try to see him, take more time to notice the effects of God.

Sometimes we are so focused on getting one thing from God, we miss out on the way he is blessing us everyday. Count your blessings right now, and know that this is the work of God. God is always working in each one of our lives, its just a matter of us taking the time to notice or taking the time to see.

Another thing we forget about an invisible God is that he is always with us. He is with us when we feel alone, he is with us when we are with friends. He is with us when we are where we should be and he is with us when we are where we should not be. He is with us when we are watching that movie that we shouldnt, with us when we are blasting that music that we shouldnt. Try to be ever mindful that God is always with you. This can be a great thought at times of trouble, but it can be a scary thought in times of sin.

Ever think how you would act different if you could see God standing next to you all day walking through your day with you. Sitting in the passenger seat when you drive. Would you drive slower? Would you restrain your road rage a little more? If he was Sitting on your bed while you are sitting at your computer. Would you look at the same web pages, would you type the same jokes to your friends over instant message? If he was sitting on the couch next to you while you switched channels. Would you watch the same things? Would you stay on the channel that caught your eye while switching even though you know you shouldnt be watching? If he was with you at work. Would you waste as much time when you should be working? Would you say as many bad things about your boss behind his back? I could play out a hundred scenarios, but you get the picture.

The truth is God is with us everyday, and that can be a scary thought when we look at our lives. We need to remember that he is with us for multiple reasons. If we remember he is there, maybe we will learn to live better lives for him because we know that even when no one else sees he does. But we also can remember because it will help us when we are going through a tough time, God is there with us, he is there to comfort us and to help us.

God is just like the wind, its always there, sometimes more noticeable then others. Its not the wind we see but its effects, its not God we see but the evidence left behind. Today as you gaze out the window at the trees blowing understand that God is working in your life whether you see it or not. Know that God is with you whether you like it or not. And know that the invisible work of God is all part of the story he is writing about you and your life. What an author to have writing your life story! Although you cant look forward and see what is going to happen, you stay close to God and follow him, and I promise you will live happily ever after.