Trusting The Wind

“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.”

—John 3:8

I grew up on the water, spending my summers on a tiny lakeshore town in Michigan. We ran the beaches, soaked up the sun, picked blueberries. But if there was wind, we sailed. We dropped everything. We’d race down the marina—wind! There’s wind!

For a sailor, the wind is everything. If you want to be in control of what’s happening, you don’t sail. If you want certainty, you get a power boat and you stick to engines instead of wind.

I feel that tension in myself sometimes: to trust the wind or to control with my own engine. I want to be a sailor. But in my fearful moments, I feel the impulse to fire up an engine, to pick a spot and head there fast, to burn some fuel instead of waiting around for the wind to do its powerful but invisible work.

I’m learning that the wind is where it’s at. When you trust the wind, when you wait for life to lead and unfold in its own timing, the feeling is exciting and calm in the very same moment, one of the best feelings in the world.