Category Archives: Submitting to God

Forceful Winds

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It’s been quite a week for the eastern third of our country. Hurricane Sandy has caused billions in damages and took more than 50 lives. Even knowing ahead of time the storm was on its way didn’t give people the capacity to avoid disaster. Human beings are no match for the violent forces of nature.

Even where I live, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, 1000 miles from the east coast, Sandy stirred up 55 mph winds and 20’ waves. Louisa and I could barely stay on our feet as we collected our beach chairs at the waterfront before they could blow away.

Wind is an interesting phenomenon. Though it’s invisible, we have no trouble seeing what it does. Scripture sometimes uses wind as a symbol for God’s Spirit. When the disciples first received this 3rd member of the Trinity, he came into their room via the sound of a “violent wind,” which eventually empowered them to work miracles and save souls for Christ.

God factored into that important occurrence of wind, but does he have anything to do with the wild winds of Hurricane Sandy? If he created the world and set the forces of nature in motion, why does he allow such uncontrolled weather to harm people, places, and things when he could stop it with a word? Scripture tells us stormy winds “do his bidding,” (Psalm 148:8, Luke 8:25), and we’ve seen Jesus demonstrate that. (Mark 4:39)

We also learn that God has storehouses full of wind (Psalm 135:7), he rides on the wind (Psalm 104:3), and he uses wind as his messenger (Psalm 104:4). If the wind is his messenger, what is his message? What, if anything, has he been trying to say through the mayhem of Sandy?

No natural disaster occurs without God hoping the losses and damage will prompt people to turn to him, especially those who’ve never been interested in him in the past. To them he offers the fresh wind of his Spirit, who is willing to come into their lives and rescue them. He hopes the intense needs left in the wake of a hurricane will bring them close to him.

And for those of us who already know him, he uses natural disasters in two ways: (1) as a tool to blow away our stale faith the way cool breezes clean out a room, and (2) as momentum for us to help others in trouble.

When Louisa and I tried to walk at the beach this week, the force of Sandy’s winds pushed us into an involuntary run. The power to move fast didn’t come from within us but from the driving energy behind us, and that’s exactly how the Spirit hopes to forcefully move in all of our lives… if only we’ll let him.

“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)

Stressful Firsts?

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Emerald Louisa Nyman is only 4 days old, which means she’s had virtually no life experiences, and not much thought-life. Her miniature cerebral cortex is probably smooth, since rivulets and ridges come as a result of thinking hard and solving problems. (Pardon the over-simplification.)

As with all of us, the cerebral cortex plays an important role in remembering, paying attention, thinking, and language. Emerald has precious few reference points for any of that, which means her young life will be a succession of firsts for a long time to come. So, even though she’s only 4 days old, we decided to facilitate a few baby brain wrinkles today by taking her on her first shopping trip.

Because of that, it turned out to be a day of firsts for our little one: first journey away from home, first wind in her face, first rainstorm, first time in fleece outerwear, first trip to a store, first admiration from strangers, and on and on it went. Were we over-rivuleting her brain with too many firsts?

Probably not.

That’s because Emerald came equipped with God’s built-in defense system against brain overload. She ended up dozing through the entire excursion, oblivious to the long list of firsts unfolding all around her.

Something similar happens in our Christian lives, even those of us whose brains are well-wrinkled from years of problem solving. When we first come to know the Lord, our spiritual cerebral cortexes are smooth and inexperienced. We accept salvation much like a child, at face value and without question. As time passes, though, our understanding of God and his Word grows, generating questions that force us to use (and sometimes over-use) our spiritual gray matter.

When difficulties grow too big to manage, the word “why” comes up, and our brains go into spiritual overdrive. Circumstances often make no logical sense, so we over-think them and can’t understand why God won’t reveal the A -to-Z plans he has in mind, why he only gives the A and B.

We wear ourselves out holding onto the what-if scenarios that haven’t happened yet, when it might be wiser to follow Emerald’s example. If she’d been aware of the long list of firsts we had planned for her today, she would have stressed her new smooth cerebral cortex to the limit. As it was, she rested in the familiar security of her mommy’s arms and probably didn’t undergo any cerebral furrowing at all.

God must shake his head in amazement as he watches us waste time and brain power stressing over things that haven’t happened yet and probably never will. He’d rather see us relax and trust him to handle future details in the right way and time.

Meanwhile, just like Birgitta kept Emerald safe in her arms, God wants to carry us, too.

“I am he who will sustain you. I have made you, and I will carry you.” (Isaiah 46:4)

The Desire Accomplished

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This afternoon there was a funny noise in our cottage: the sound of a newborn. Birgitta and Emerald arrived home together but not as together as they’d been for the last 9 months. Now the cord has been cut, and Emerald is breathing and eating as a separate entity. We’ve had the joy of watching her birth and have been changed by the wonder of it all.

Birgitta impressed us by persevering through a torturously long labor that began on Tuesday evening and ended Friday afternoon. Though she’d hoped to pursue an all-natural delivery, the unrelenting contractions that refused to “get organized” (nursing terminology) dictated a different route.

Eventually she had a talk with herself and willingly set aside her personal goals to do what was best for her baby: get her born. She acquiesced to drugs that sped up labor to intolerable levels, then finally had to say yes to additional drugs that helped her save energy for the big push.

In the end, after 67 hours of labor, little Emerald emerged peacefully and intact, swinging one arm out ahead of the rest of her as if to say, “Hi, everybody!” Her delivery room audience of 9 applauded and voiced a welcome, and Birgitta’s longing to meet her baby was satisfied.

The only almost-casualty was Louisa. Overcome with emotion, she came close to a dead-faint but for a quick-thinking nurse and a cold cloth to her neck. Louisa rallied, though, in time to finish videoing the birth and hear that the baby’s middle name would be her own. Her tears of happiness blessed us all.

This labor and delivery was a perfect example of the way God works, too. His solutions to our problems always seem laborious and slow in coming. We ask him to help, then wonder. Did he hear? Is he too busy? Does he care? Can he see this suffering? Why won’t he act?

And then, just like with Birgitta’s seemingly interminable labor, everything changes quickly and resolves. In some cases our cries to God don’t come together with his solutions for months or even years, and while we’re waiting, we lose heart. When that happens, the only thing to do is take his promises at face value and, like Birgitta, continue to persevere. He says, “Remember, I’m still in the middle of this, even though you can’t see me. I said I’d bring an end to your pain, and I will. My methods aren’t like yours, but believe me that they’re always better. You’ll absolutely marvel!”

What better metaphor for that long process than labor and delivery? Birgitta’s memory of her struggle rapidly diminished as elation took over, just as it does when the Lord brings new circumstances that obliterate our old troubles.

We look at what he’s done and wonder how we could have ever doubted he would do it.

“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy.” (John 16:21)