The Wind Of God

Monday, 03 Feb 2003

Remembering back...

We finally got the call. We had been waiting weeks for the wind to be just right, for the weather to cooperate with our adventure, and it was time to go. Time to soar high into the morning air in a hot air balloon. This was a dream of Phil's, and it was a gift from those that cared deeply for him. At long last, that dream would come true!

We headed to the Central Valley of California and met with the balloon owners. As we helped them inflate this contraption, we witnessed a beautiful sight! The colors of the rainbow began to expand before our eyes as the balloon filled and lifted off the ground. Then it was time to climb aboard into the small basket that hung beneath this colorful display and sail upward into the clear blue sky.

Slowly we lifted off the ground and caught the gentle wind as it blew us in the direction of its choosing. There was such silence, such peace, such beauty to behold in the early morning hours of that day. Once in awhile that silence would be disturbed by the flame that was lit to allow more hot air into the balloon, or a few words spoken about our adventure, but for the most part, there was silence. We could not even hear the wind because as it blew, we moved at its speed, in its direction, upon its command.

"Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes
from or where it is going, so you can't explain
how people are born of the Spirit."
John 3:8
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Standing on the ground, we can hear the wind, we can feel it, it can toss us about. But in the air, floating on it as we did, we became a part of it. No longer fighting against it, but moving with it. Just as we can move with the Spirit when God is alive in us.

We can move with God, flow with Him, become a part of His plan and enjoy the journey. We can feel the peace He brings and rest in the "basket" of His love, secure in where He is carrying us on any given day.

The present...

Saturday was a day in our lives that will not soon be forgotten. It was a day that started with the news of the Space Shuttle Columbia being lost during its landing approach, and it was a day that had us "digging deep" into so many different emotions. As we went through so many of our belongings, Jim said it felt like he was throwing his life away. Tossing things into the garbage as the day progressed. I was doing the same. We also sold our van that we have had for 11½ years. There were so many memories that drove away with it...
Any one of these things would have been difficult on its own, but then the letter came...

As I got the mail out of our box and brought it into the house, Jim asked why I was frowning...I told him what I held in my hands. It was a letter, addressed to Phil Shore...in Phil's handwriting...and on the back in Phil's handwriting was written...The Class of 2003...

I handed the envelope to Jim to open, and walked out of the room, quickly to return. I guess I didn't know where to go or what to do with this...when I returned, Jim was visibly upset, having opened the envelope. I told him I was crying and I hadn't even read it yet...I asked him what it was?

He said it was Phil's Obituary, written by Phil. It was probably written the year he started high school, to be mailed out when his class graduated four years later. It was a silly account really, of him living to 119 years old, falling while running across a freeway as a stunt man in the movie "Old man on the Freeway."
It goes on to say He was survived by three boys, one girl, a wife, and the rest of the world. At the time of his death he was working on becoming the funniest singer alive, but then he died.

Silly stuff, right? But not so silly, not so laughable, considering... It could have blown us right out of the sky!!

Where would we be if we were not sailing along on the wind of a Mighty Savior?
What would we do with a day like this, if not carried along in life by His hope?
How would we survive the hurt that one day can inflict on our emotions without the relief that His promises bring to our lives?

If you need wisdom - if you want to know what God wants you to do - ask him,
and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. But when you ask him,
be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled
as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
James 1:5-6
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Tossed by the wind...that is what life can do to you! Toss you about, turn you upside down, upset the ship you are sailing in, whether on ground or sea. It can be difficult!!

As I changed our bed Saturday morning, listening to the TV reports of the Space Shuttle, I knew that those families would be returning home soon. They would be in shock from their loss, and I knew that they would not care one bit if their beds were changed or even made for months to come. All the little things we do without effort, as part of "our" plan, had suddenly changed for them. They would be spending the next weeks, months and years getting accustomed to this new "wind" in their lives. The one that had blown them off course, in a whole new direction they never expected, and when they finally landed once again on steady ground, they would be in a place they never expected to ever be. God will carry them there, and if they are wise, if they "need wisdom", if they "want to know", they should ask God.

This is not to say the journey will be easy, the road will be smooth, and the destination will be arrived at quickly. This is to say that only God knows the way, as only God knows the wind that blows in our lives, and if we want His help, we need to ask. We should expect an answer, and we should believe that He will gladly tell us. Then we can sail on those winds and know that wherever we "land", it will be right where He wants us to be.

Where we "landed" this last Saturday was right where God knew we would be. We didn't know it. Last year we would never have guessed it, but we can rest in the fact that God does know. That He is with us, and that it is another step in the direction He has for our lives.

Some days are easy. Some days we sail on that wind and float along with joy and laughter. Some days are not so easy. There is much heartache and shock and a gentle prying out of our hands and hearts the things that need to be worked through, gotten rid of and healed from.

Save me, O God,
for the floodwaters are up to my neck.
Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire;
I can't find a foothold to stand on.
I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me.
I am exhausted from crying for help;
my throat is parched and dry.
My eyes are swollen with weeping,
waiting for my God to help me.
Psalm 69:1-3
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How many of us have been there?
I HAVE!!

I have felt like the floodwaters were not only up to my neck, but right up to below my eyes. One more drop of rain in my life, and the water would swallow me up and I would drown in the depths of the pain in my life.

In moments like those, there is only one place to go.
Only one place that offers any relief.
Only one God who has the answers I am looking for.

On days like this last Saturday when life keeps hitting you right between the eyes, the only way to stay standing is to have a firm foundation built upon which to stand. If you're looking for it in this world, you're looking in the wrong place. It does not exist. The best cement, the strongest steel, the toughest building material you could find will crumble when the weight of this world comes crashing down on it. When your loved ones are about to land after the most exciting mission of their lives in space, and fifteen minutes before they arrive they are gone forever from you on this earth, where do you stand?
Where do you go for answers?
Where will your hope come from then?

You have allowed me to suffer much hardship,
but you will restore me to life again
and lift me up from the depths of the earth.
You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again.
Psalm 71:20-21
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The "wind" blew and knocked down these families lives as they knew them. They can barely breathe at this point and they wonder why? Just as our earth shook this last Sunday from a few earthquakes we experienced here in the Bay Area, their whole likes have been shaken to the very core of who they are and what they now believe. What will they hold onto?

I wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation
my fortress where I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor come from God alone.
He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
Psalm 62:5-7
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They are silent, they are waiting, they are looking for hope. Perhaps they have been shaken like never before in their lives. Or maybe it's not the first time for such great loss...maybe they know, maybe they have experienced something similar, maybe they have found their answer.
I pray they have!

We've all seen those signs at the sporting events, especially the football games. They simply write out in bold letters:

John 3:16

It seems simple, it seems sort of crazy really, because if you know what John 3:16 is, then you probably don't need to be reading it during the game. If you don't know what John 3:16 is, then you probably don't care anyway. You'll probably think that some "religious fanatics" are there at the game, trying to shove the Bible down your throat, and I seriously doubt you will run out and buy a Bible to see what they are talking about.
You really don't care!
Leave me alone with all that "stuff" anyway!!
I don't need that in my life!
I'm doing just fine!!

Good for you! Glad you've got it all together and you don't need a firm foundation except the one you have built with human hands. Good going! Your life is moving along on a great "wind", you are successful and you and your family's health is great! Life is treating you good, and you expect it to be that way until the day you die....Yes, I'm sorry to tell you, that day will come! You may be on the most exciting adventure of your life, you may be 15 minutes from touchdown, ready to run into the arms of your loving family and friends that await you and suddenly you've gone from here to there. You thought you didn't need to know where "there" was, what it was all about. You thought it didn't concern you because life was good. Your plans were working out perfectly, and you had better things to do. You paid no attention to "John 3:16" because you didn't want to become one of those "religious fanatics" anyway! They are all crazy's who need a crutch in this life to lean on. You are stronger than that!

And suddenly your life is over.
Or suddenly you are left behind, and the one you love is gone.
And suddenly you need more answers than what you have, if you are honest with yourself.
Because suddenly life isn't all you thought it was cracked up to be.

Do you want to know what John 3:16 says?
I'm going to tell you!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16
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Oh, that "simple" verse.
I knew that!
I've heard that!
I don't even believe or read my Bible, but I'm familiar with that verse.
I should have known that's what it was!

You may not need this verse yet, you may never want to cling to it, you may never care or admit you do, but it could possibly be the most important message you will ever read in your life!
Why?
Because it pertains to your eternity!
It concerns you!
Without it, you will not reach heaven!
You will be lost!

It is God's greatest gift to us!
It is the Rock on which we can all stand!
It is the foundation that will never be shaken!

No earthquake, no tragedy, no heartache, no loss will ever compare or outweigh this gift from our loving Father in heaven.
Nothing on earth can outweigh what God has given us through His One and Only Son!

No wind in our lives can blow us completely over, because we can ride along on that very wind as it carries us to the place God has prepared for us here on earth and to our final destination in heaven. It doesn't matter if the winds are hurricane force and destroy everything we have ever known or loved. God makes the winds, He knows the direction they will blow, and He is bigger than all of it. We can ride with Him!

The enemy tried to destroy Jesus. He tried to kill Him on the cross. He thought he had accomplished that very thing. What he didn't get was that it was all in God's plan. He fell right into the hands of God, and he did exactly what God wanted him to do! He "killed" the very Son of God, so that God could raise Jesus up three days later and defeat the enemy's hold on us once and for all.

The day Jesus was clearing out the Temple of merchants, the Jewish leaders wanted to know what right He had to do such things:

"What right do you have to do these things?" The Jewish leaders demanded.
"If you have this authority from God, show us a miraculous sign to prove it."

"All right," Jesus replied. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

"What!" they exclaimed. "It took forty-six years to build this Temple,
and you can do it in three days?"

But by "this temple," Jesus meant his body.

After he was raised from the dead, the disciples remembered that he had said this.
And they believed both Jesus and the Scriptures.
John 2:18-22
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Sometimes we have to see to believe. We are like that. Prove it to me, then I will believe it.
Sometimes we are called to believe without seeing. That is called faith.
Sometimes we have seen it and still don't believe it.

Then Jesus told him, "You believe because you have seen me.
Blessed are those who haven't seen me and believe anyway."
John 20:29
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Wherever you find yourself, believing by seeing, believing without seeing, or not believing even though you have seen, the Truth remains the Truth. John 3:16 is not just for "religious fanatics" at football games who want to "preach" to you on national television. It is for everyone! It applies to everyone, and everyone will know that one day.

Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God.
He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and
appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even
further by dying a criminal's death on a cross. Because of this, God raised him up to the
heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:7-11
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When someone in your life is suddenly gone from this earth, whether it be after a long illness, or whether it be minutes before you are about to welcome them back to earth, it brings you to your knees. You can't help it. While you are there, searching for wisdom, looking for answers, questioning why, why, why?!! Ask the One who knows! Look to the One who has what you are searching for! Let Him lift you back onto your feet again, and walk into the rest of your life on His firm foundation.

It took "forty-six years" to build the Temple in Jerusalem. But Jesus was not talking about destroying that Temple, He was talking about himself. They did not understand that. He was the One to be destroyed at age thirty-three, and to be raised up again. He did it, He showed them, but some still did not believe. The same goes for this day and age. Some still don't believe.

I will turn forty-six this week. Do you think this is why God brought me to this verse today? It makes me smile to think so. It makes me think that it has taken forty-six years of "building" to get to where I am today, and I have so far to go yet. I have so much to learn. So much to experience. So much ahead of me...or do I?
God only knows!
But what I know is that in those forty-six years, God has been good to me. He has been with me each step of the way, even before I knew Him, and He will never leave me. I have seen hardships and trials. I have felt the hurricane force winds blow in my life, but I know the One who knows the winds so I can sail along on them, soar through life with Him, and listen quietly to Him. It is a peaceful place to be most days, but on days like this last Saturday, it is also the ONLY place to be. Otherwise, I believe that it wouldn't matter how beautiful that hot air balloon looked up in the sky, it could be torn to shreds and drop to earth suddenly, without warning, just as the Space Shuttle Columbia did. All the wisdom and knowledge of human kind could not keep it afloat. Only God can do that, and only God can repair the damage caused by such a tragedy. He can, and He will, if we will only let Him.
If not, we can pick up the pieces strewn about, we can try to reconstruct what has happened, we can go back and play the tapes over and over and over looking for clues, and we can allow it to ruin what started out so good because we can't find all the answers. But we don't have to, when we live our lives in the Hand of the One who knows all from the very beginning of time and we can rest in Him.

The past...

Yes, we finally got the call. We went to sail on the wind early one morning, and Phil was able to experience a bit of heaven on earth in that hot air balloon. He said after the flight that even though he had a slight fear of heights, there was no fear felt in that basket, high in the sky. I wonder why? Was it because it sailed with the wind, not against it? Because there was no struggle against what was? Just a gentle moving along with God in control of where we would go, where we would land, and how high we would fly that day? I think so! It was an experience that was not to be missed, and I'm so glad we were able to do that with Phil here on earth before he sailed away into heaven ahead of us on the wind of God.

That was the day that John 3:16 was not just a sign at a football game, but the very sign that led him home when his time on earth was finished.

Thanks for sailing along with me this morning!

Living in His peace,
Diane