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2007
9th July
Smells
2nd July
Smile
26th June
Waterlogged
11th June
Plans
6th June
Letters
21st May
Friends
May 9th
Stereotypes
May 1st
Broken
April 16th
Climbing hills
April 9th
The Three Trees
April 2nd
Small but deadly
March 28th
Toby the
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March 19th
Mountains
March 4th
Lone Daffodil
February 26th
Working hours
February 19th
Memory
February 12th
Piercings
February 5th
Patience
January 29th
Surprise
January 22nd
Wind
January 15th
Honesty
January 8th
My Car
January 3rd
Happy New Year
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Wind
23rd January 2007
You may have noticed that it’s been slightly breezy over the past
few days. It makes me think of a song I sang in primary school:
“I love the wind,
It blows round me,
God made the wind,
And God made me!”
There were several other verses all pertaining to weather
phenomenon. But I think that I like the wind verse best, because I
do in fact love the wind. Obviously I don’t love it when people get
hurt or killed by the wind, or when property is damaged (last week’s
gales blew my TV aerial off – minor I know compared to what some
people have lost or had damaged), but to me there is something great
about being stood in the wind.
I
love going up on the moors when I go home to Cornwall. I climb up
Tregarrick Tor, one of my favouritist places in the whole world, and
I look out over the moorland, the nearby lake and any random passing
livestock. Cornwall, although being the most southerly part of the
UK, can get very cold and wet, and high up on the Tor there is no
shelter from the buffeting wind. I love to stand there and let the
wind blow around me, gusting my hair all over the place (never to be
combed again!) and more often than not driving the rain into me! It
gives me a sense of god’s power – that I am so very small, and that
as I look out over His creation, He is stronger than anything on
this earth and He will always protect me. When I can no longer feel
my limbs I walk back down the hill into the shelter of the valley
and eventually into the warmth. But as I walk down I can still feel
the wind on my skin, I can still hear the wind in my ears and the
power, that strength of the wind stays with me for a while after I’m
out of it’s presence.
But while I’m talking about wind, I couldn’t help to mention the
other kind of ‘wind’. As children we weren’t allowed to say fart,
but it was passing wind, which is deemed more polite! At one of my
youth clubs I asked the kids what they called it, and they actually
wrote me a fart list! In alphabetical order there is:
Blew one
Bomb
Cut the cheese
Fart
Let rip
Pass wind
Perp
Poop
Pump
Raspberry
Squeak
Stink
Trump
Whatever you call it (and no doubt there are countless other ways of
expressing it) we all fart – it’s a natural process – although some
people are better at it than others! A friend of mine actually woke
himself up by farting! (He is very proud of this, although for the
rest of us who were in the room at the time, it wasn’t so nice!)
The thing with farts is that they can linger. You can walk into a
room and still feel the after effects of someone’s release of wind.
It’s never nice. It can be embarrassing for the perpetrator (unless
they have no shame like my friend!) and it can be highly unpleasant
for those victims who happen to be nearby.
I
think that wind is a bit like the things that we do, our everyday
actions. Some of these things are good and some of them are not so
good. Some of them are worthwhile and pleasing to others, some of
them are selfish and worthless. The good things we do – the smiles,
the helpful little acts, the putting others first, all reflect the
goodness of God, His love and His grace. We love others because He
first loved us, and so in caring for the people we come into contact
with, we are showing them God’s love. Like the wind as I come off
the Tor, the effect of these positive things continues, even after
we have left the situation and in some cases for years to come.
Unfortunately, like the farts, the bad things we do also linger
around. The lies we tell, the hurtful things we think and say, the
selfishness and greed, all have an affect on the people around us
and do little to reflect God’s love. These too can influence the
lives of others for a long time to come. Scary thought isn’t it?
How then do you want to be thought of and remembered? As someone who
is full of the wind of the Holy Spirit, putting others first and
loving our neighbours? Or as someone who is full of gas, putting
yourself first and showing anything but love? |
