Jeremy L. Berg

I haven’t written much this summer. This post touches on one of the reasons why. Be well, my friends. -JB

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ACTS 2

I have a two alarms set on my phone. The first one goes off in the morning and tells me to “Get Up and go!” The second one goes off at 10:02 AM, and alerts me to “Stop and pray.” In other words, stop what you are doing and wait on God for what He may be doing. (10:02 is based on Luke 10:2 which urges us to “pray to to send out workers into his harvest field.”) To be honest, I push “snooze” on both more than I would like to admit.

I like being in control. Most of us do. It’s human nature and that impulse was alive and well in the first apostles when, after his resurrection, Jesus told them to “Go and wait.” They liked the “go” part, but probably not the “wait” part. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait too long for something to happen.

We are exploring the Book of Acts on Sunday evenings as a church, and we just joined the apostles as they waited in the Upper Room until that “rushing wind” of God’s Spirit–His presence and power–came blowing into the room and into their hearts. It’s great when the cool breath of suddenly fans the flickering flames of our fickle hearts, or blows our minds with a surprising gale force wind. It’s much harder sitting still in a spiritual sailboat when there is no sign of a breeze. Stranded. Stuck. Motionless. Stagnant. Empty.

I remember sitting on the shore of Lake Minnetonka in Wayzata in the summer of 2010 with my video camera. The lake was dotted with dozens of happy sail boats cruising on the waves. I, on the other hand, was trying to harness the wind and get some momentum in planting a new church in my hometown across the lake. I recorded a little video for our donors and those interested in being part of our new church.

In the video (where you can see a much young Jeremy), I reflected on our cultural ethos and national slogans of “Just do it!” and “Git er done!” I confessed then, as I do today, that I am one of those spiritual sailors who longs for the Wind of God to blow through my sail; but I also have an outboard motor on the back of my vessel for those days when I don’t feel like waiting on God. Just pull the string, fire up the motor, and “git r done” on my own power.

Waiting is hard. Faith is trying. Maintaining a romance with a Wind “that blows this way and that” is not easy (John 3). “The Spirit-Wind is willing, but the flesh is weak,” Jesus said.

This summer the Dark Cloud returned, and I have been feeling emotionally adrift for several weeks on a sea of in articulate blah. No drive or inspiration to write. No new podcast episodes. Trying my best to “show up” for my family and church, but feeling like a tattered, droopy, lifeless windsock.

But this is where the paradox of faith comes in: “God’s power is made manifest in my weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). God’s tender Spirit loves to enliven a tired but willing droopy windsock; its the prideful, self-sufficient windsock already full one’s own hot air that the Spirit finds difficult. So we need to keep showing up, even when we don’t feel God’s wind in our sails. One member of the church said in passing recently, “Like the wind that brought new life into the dry bones in Ezekiel 37, your teaching, Jeremy, helps breathe God’s wind into our tired bones.” The most affirming words I have heard in a long time.

This summer, I have hoisted my musical sail up in the air, and spent some of my desert-days wandering like an old western troubadour with my guitar on my back, entertaining people with music between Sundays. There’s a kind of wind — part divine, part human, part mystery — that never fails to blow through the melodies and rhythms of good music. These music gigs bring a sudden burst of wind to my sail, and move me closer to some kind of pleasant shore. At least for a few hours.

After a year of playing other peoples’ songs, I have even started writing and recording some of my own songs in recent weeks. We’ll see where those strange, creative wind gusts take me, and I may share some of those songs here in time. (If you haven’t seen the song I recorded for my parents’ 50th anniversary, that project kept me going in a dark couple of weeks – watch here.)

For today, I am just once again marveling that the Spirit-Wind of God that hovered over the darkness of the deep before Creation, and then condescended to breathe the Wind of Life into the first human beings, is poised to blow fresh wind into my sails at any moment. If I am waiting and ready. If I am not too busy zooming around in circles with my self-powered motor.

By the way, whatever of became of wind chimes? Our front porches have grown silent in these days, and our nation and world desperately needs the sounds of Holy Spirit wind chimes ringing through our neighborhoods.

My 10:02 AM alarm just went off. Should I push snooze and keep writing this? Or should I stop and wait for the wind to blow on the smoldering embers of my soul?

The next two Sunday mornings I will be leading chapel services at Lake Minnetonka Shores with my kids, bringing two messages on “Wind + Fire.” Join us if you’re in the area.