Flinging myself into the wind
More from Mark Buchanan, this time on the mysterious working of the Holy Spirit:
That a faith based on staggering mysteries--the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Cross and Resurrection, the imparting of the Spirit--should have become shorn of mystery, so plodding and prosaic, so mundane and managerial, is a bitter irony. It's an irony that Jesus' famous statement to Nicodemus, you must be born again, has in our hands been turned into a slogan and a formula. Out of Jesus' mouth, in Nicodemus's ear, that statement proclaimed a staggering mystery. It was the ultimate antiformula.
"The wind blows wherever it pleases," Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus, who struggles in his literalism and rationalism to understand. "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).
This is no formula. This is a description of the in-breaking and surprising move of God. This is something we can't work for, work up, predict, direct. It doesn't slot neatly into a program. You just hear it coming and fling yourself headlong into the hurricane.
I decided some years ago to just fling myself headlong into the hurricane whenever and wherever I hear the Holy Spirit blowing, and what a trip it has been! I've met my best friends in the hurricane, people like me who just want more of God and aren't afraid to let the Holy Spirit work however he wants to. Thanks, my hurricane friends, especially Annette and T-Mark!
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That a faith based on staggering mysteries--the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Cross and Resurrection, the imparting of the Spirit--should have become shorn of mystery, so plodding and prosaic, so mundane and managerial, is a bitter irony. It's an irony that Jesus' famous statement to Nicodemus, you must be born again, has in our hands been turned into a slogan and a formula. Out of Jesus' mouth, in Nicodemus's ear, that statement proclaimed a staggering mystery. It was the ultimate antiformula.
"The wind blows wherever it pleases," Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus, who struggles in his literalism and rationalism to understand. "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).
This is no formula. This is a description of the in-breaking and surprising move of God. This is something we can't work for, work up, predict, direct. It doesn't slot neatly into a program. You just hear it coming and fling yourself headlong into the hurricane.
I decided some years ago to just fling myself headlong into the hurricane whenever and wherever I hear the Holy Spirit blowing, and what a trip it has been! I've met my best friends in the hurricane, people like me who just want more of God and aren't afraid to let the Holy Spirit work however he wants to. Thanks, my hurricane friends, especially Annette and T-Mark!
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posted by KathyH @ 10:13 PM
3 Comments:
At 10:28 PM ,
Annette said...
awwww, that's awesome! You're welcome and I love the hurricane, too. You know, as a little kid, I went through alot of hurricanes- not as bad as Katrina - as a little child, I remember them fondly. (My apologies to hurricane victims)
At 1:08 PM ,
laurajo said...
I like this picture of being flung into a hurricane, because that's usually what it feels like when you submit to the holy spirit and just let it take you. You feel as though you have no control over what you are doing. It's scary, thrilling, and just wild. Sorry, to admit that I don't willingly throw myself into the hurricane as much as I should. But sometimes, you dont get the choice and you are dragged in. I am thankful for that.
At 1:54 PM ,
KathyH said...
Yeah, the chance to fling yourself into the hurricane is the coolest thing about FBC, don't you think?
And imagine about 100 hurricanes at once--that's the Worship Institute. Keep praying about that for next year, ok? I think God wants you there, I really do. HE CAN DO IT!!
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