There’s a hard wind blowing here on the farm straight out of the west.  I walk east to the barn and am swept along by powerful invisible.

Time to set out the grain.  Time to throw out the hay.  Time to clean the barn.

As our horses eat, I reach for the fork and muck those stalls.  What a mess these beasts have created in their chambers where they do their business. Thankfully, there’s always someone who will step in and do their best to clean up after others, leaving a better place for all.

It’s a humbling job—the picking through stalls, the dumping out of wheelbarrow, the turning over of compost pile.  We wait for God to pour down rain and rays, water and warmth, transforming the huge pile of waste into feeding ground for life.

Stalls are done.  Now comes the broom.  Time for a full sweep.

 

I can hear the wind outside the barn, this day.

I roll those barn doors wide open and let that wind blow straight through.  Let the power of the invisible help me clean the dusty, cobwebbed rails and clear the concrete aisle separating one side of this horse house from another.  Sweep WITH the wind, not AGAINST.  That’s what I do.

But I could choose another way, the harder way.  I could choose MY way and not the wind’s.

Which way would you elect?

We can start forcing our will, raising our fists, filling our ovals, hoping for change.

Do we really want our own own way?

Are we being swept along by arrogant noses and megaphone mouths broadcasting the desires of our own hearts?

OUR will be done!  We want what we want, by God!  And, by God, we’re going to GET IT!  Because we’re MAD as HELL and we’re NOT going to TAKE it anymore! 

Same old, same old.

Railing derails us.

We follow bright and shiny objects shouting to us, “Pick me!”

And then we get a taste of the tempter.

And then we find ourselves as God said we would without Him . . .

Promises, promises . . .

Where are our noses?  High and lifted up?

Be careful who or what we ask for.  We might just get him.  Or her.  Or it.  Then what?

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.  Proverbs 14:12

 

How about this strategy . . .

How about a platform that proposes working WITH God instead of AGAINST, moving WITH Holy Spirit wind?

How about sticking our noses in God’s Word inspired by divinity, not twisted by humanity?

How about trading in our “counterfeit gods” (Tim Keller) for the One True Triune God who sees the whole mess we’ve created and will heal us.  If we HUMBLE ourselves.  If we pray for HIS will to be done.  If we TURN from our wicked ways.  If we work WITH God.

His yoke is easy.  His burden is light.

There’s a hard wind blowing, this day.

Which way are we facing?

Our hope can rest in no man, no woman, no thing.

Which way are we facing?

As for me and my barn, I’m choosing this day to work with the wind.  I need some rest for my weary soul.  I’m hoping for some healing in my soul and in this land.

You?

 

Salvation comes from the LORD.  Jonah 2:9

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

My yoke is easy and my burden is light.  Matthew 11:30

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.  He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not lived on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.  Deuteronomy 8:2-3