Riding the wind

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” These are Jesus’ words to a very puzzled Nicodemus.” The phrase “born of the Spirit” takes time to grasp and live into. But wind is a palpable, knowable experience. We can’t see it, but we see its effects with no trouble.

In both Greek and Hebrew, the word for Spirit is also the the word for wind: ruach in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek. The Biblical association of wind, air, and breath with Spirit goes all the way back to Eden and the breath of life. Indeed, the ancient Hebrews believed that since every word, is borne on the breath of life, the breath it takes to utter a single word is a manifestation of Spirit.

Still, we can’t verify the movement of the Spirit within us or around us or measure it or control it. It comes and goes, like breezes and breath. It moves where it will. This means that life in the Spirit is a life of attentiveness and waiting–watching the wind as sailors watch it, to determine how to proceed.

Sometimes the movement of the Spirit in our lives is a current so subtle that all we experience is a little refreshment, barely noticeable at the time—a little pressure in a direction we hadn’t expected. Sometimes it’s a blast of wind that bends and stretches us like the saplings in a storm. Sometimes it blows us entirely off the course we’d planned.

So we have to be watchful. To use a very homely metaphor, living in the Spirit is like keeping your eye on the ball: if an athlete is self-consciously fixated on his own body, he won’t move into the “zone.” We enter the zone. We listen for the voice of God. We move into a new frequency.

It’s a challenge. If it weren’t hard there wouldn’t be such a mountain of  books about spiritual life out there. What makes it hard is what made it hard for Nicodemus: attachment to organization, control, structure, schedules, rules, customs, expectations in which, like Nicodemus, we’ve invested our sense of importance and identity. Life in the Spirit is a life of trust, not of control.

Nicodemus, a learned man, has been hanging onto forms of understanding and control that make him feel safe, secure, and in control. He comes to Jesus hoping for an explanation, but what he gets is a bit of poetry and the biggest challenge he could possibly face. He gets an image of life with God that changes everything: it is like riding on the wind.