Good morning…
If we are to go where we are destined to go, we need to harness the power of the One and Only dependable stream of wind. There are other competing winds wreaking havoc in our world. In recent days, I have pondered this wise advice: “Keep your sail out of that wind.”
I think of the small Sunfish sailboat we have enjoyed as a family on our favorite little lake in Pennsylvania. “The Sunfish is a personal-size, beach-launched sailing dinghy,” explains Wikipedia. “It features a very flat, boardlike hull carrying an Oceanic lateen sail mounted to an un-stayed mast.” The mast is maneuvered manually, adjusted intuitively so the erected sail can catch the power of the unpredictable wind.
After yesterday’s post, The Uncertain Wind, a friend and I were likening our faith-life to gliding across the water in a Sunfish. I emailed her these words.
“Sails down. Stay out of the world’s chaotic bluster. As the wind of God’s Spirit catches our awareness, sails up! Positioning ourselves with our full attention to the wind. Sensing the Spirit’s power moving, filling, guiding our sails. Using every inch of our whole self, we keep our tiny Sunfish moving forward with God. Resting, trusting, waiting when the unpredictable wind falls still. These are the keys to our ‘with-God’ life!”
I love the tangible analogy. This embodied experience makes me think of a quote on page 75 in Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer.
“We have a responsibility to cooperate with God’s transforming grace. He won’t force it upon us. As Saint Augustine said in the fourth century.
Without God, we cannot.
Without us, God will not.
…our job isn’t to self-save; it’s to surrender.'” We to surrender our sails to the power of the wind, again and again and again throughout our daily journey.
What a thrilling, vulnerable place of intersection: our small surrendered sail and God’s great unpredictable wind! Riding on the edge of ourselves, holding on for dear life or sitting completely still, waiting, waiting, waiting for any hint of wind. We live life between these two extremes with a lot of smooth sailing and choppy waters in between. Like a Sunfish, we will glide from here into eternity. In God’s time. In God’s way. In God’s mysterious power.
We will not be people who are always changing like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to deceive us—those who make clever plans and use every kind of trick to fool others into following the wrong way. No, we will speak the truth with love. We will grow to be like Christ in every way (Ephesians 4:13b-15a, ERV).
…Sue…
