Psalm 100 Isaiah 55:1–5 Colossians 3:12–17 John 16:16–24
I was in Oxford, Maryland, a few years ago on retreat. Late one night, the river—which had been quiet for two days—came suddenly to life. I opened the porch door to listen to the waves as I drifted to sleep.
At 3:00 a.m., a roaring wind woke me. I went out on the porch. The wind was pounding against me and literally howling—but, strangely, it was neither cold nor warm. It was magnificent, but it was also terrible and powerful as it hurled against me. This wind was no regular wind. It was a God-wind. It was God moving over the face of the waters, and I was at the water’s edge.
It was too much for me to take, this gale-force God-wind, and so I went inside. For a while I kept the door open, and I was like Elijah, staying in the cleft of the rock as God went past. But I couldn’t even take that much God- force, and so I closed the door on that fierce, beautiful wind.
What will you do when you find yourself on the water’s edge? When you feel the breath of God against your skin? I hope next time to be brave enough to stand outside and be a part of it.
This Lent, God IS doing a new thing. In your life. In the life of the church. In the life of the world.
There is a fresh wind blowing.
–Gini Gerbasi
