Be a windmill

Windmills have existed for a very long time – some say around the year 500 in Persia, and others say even earlier than that, in China. Either way, we still use them. There are beautiful small windmills at waterholes in the Karoo desert in South Africa, made from thin sheet metal and spindly metal rods, drawing water from deep boreholes. In Holland, they had so many at one stage that they became a national symbol, big spinning sails attached to stubby lighthouse-like towers, grinding grain. And now many open plains are dominated by giant modern turbines spinning slowly in the wind, making electricity for light and for heat.

The wind has been blowing though, long before we humans knew how to use its power. It’s a bit much to say  we “harness” the power, because the blows on, capricious and undiminished it seems by the push it has given to the sweeping turbines or spinning tin sails. The wind has always been there. People have always known that the wind had power: maybe we felt it lift our hair; maybe we saw it wreaking havoc. But now, that power can be applied, though the windmills and turbines, to bring water, to make bread, to make light.

The Holy Spirit has always been here; from the beginning He was with God, and he was God. His power was known and sometimes felt. But now we have the chance to work with Him. We can align our lives to be branches of the vine, instruments of God’s power. We can let it work through us.

It takes slowing down, this focus on the Holy Spirit. It takes stopping, for a while, the focus on all our daily lives. It takes a little silence, and a little time with the Word of God, a little prayer.

But look at what it can do, that wind, when it blows through the right instruments? Not just pouring across the empty landscape, but making good in people’s lives. Bringing water. Making bread. Making light.

 

Genesis 1: 1-2                    In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Romans 15:13                    May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5: 22-23             But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

John 3:8                               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.

Salvage

Did you ever think about the close connection between the words salvation and salvage?

Salvation is a really clean word, sanitised and abstract. Sometimes Christians use it in a pious way to describe themselves. It gives a picture of smug sheep, branded with salvation and headed for heaven, looking down on the ones who are not so “chosen”. We hear a lot about “eternal salvation” as though it were something that only kicks in after we die. That makes salvation just a ticket to heaven, a reward for some kind of audition or test that we must have passed, which brings the focus back to us, and our brilliant performance that has earned us this prize. Something to be proud of.

Salvage is a brilliant way of thinking about salvation in these circumstances, because that’s all about rescuing something that is demonstrably broken and lost. You can salvage wreckage from the sea (perhaps with someone clinging to it), or old broken things from a junkyard. You can’t salvage anything that is doing OK on its own. Salvage is messy and individual and takes a lot of work, but only on the part of the one doing the rescuing. The person being saved only has to agree that they are in need of rescue, that they will not reach land on their own, that they need this. There’s nothing to boast about if you’ve been salvaged; you can only be grateful, not smug.

Thank God for His salvage. Thank God He picked me up, paddling hopelessly towards the horizon, and patched me back together with His beautiful grace, making me a new thing. I was rescued, once I finally had enough trust to accept rescue.

And thank God this is not an elite thing to boast about, but an offer for anyone who asks, who wants out of this average mess we live in. Do you want to be salvaged, made safe, beautiful and new? All you have to do is reach out to take hold of the outstretched hand of God, and say yes.

But I can’t see His hand, you might say.

It’s OK. You don’t have to.

He can see yours.

 

Ephesians 2: 8-9                          For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Galatians 3:28                              There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 11:28                            “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Shine

Some things are made to stay the same, to be held and preserved: memories, photographs, things that mean more to us than they do to others. We want to keep them and hold them. We don’t want to give them away.

Other things have no meaning, really, unless we spend them and let them change. Money is safe and measurable in your hand or your bank account, but it’s doing nothing there. An unlit candle never shines. It’s just wax, not light. It never gets past being pure potential. As long as you’re saving or storing them, an unlit candle or saved money are really only things to take care of – a sort of burden.

It makes sense to provide for the future. But beyond a certain point where you have stored some candles for a dark night ahead, or some money for your future, beyond that point, storing more is not useful. Beyond that point, storing or not using is a way of destroying, of never letting the thing that’s meant to be used fulfil its real potential.

I hope you have a little money. I know for sure you have other gifts: maybe a singing voice, a kindness, a gift for organising or encouraging or bringing people together. You may have a way with words, or with food, or with children or old people. That gift, those skills, they are unlit candles too, unless you put them out there, risk them and put them to use.

All your money, your skills, your gifts: you can save them for another day if you like. But don’t wait too long. Use the things that are meant to be used and spend what is meant to be spent. Let things change, and watch your seeds become trees. Hear your beautiful voice become a song. Let all your candles shine.

 

Matthew 5: 14-15            “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

 

Romans 12:6-8                  We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

 

Luke 6:37                             Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap