Thought for the Week

It was blowing an absolute hooley on the beach.

The sand was mimicking the waves as it rolled across the beach like a great tidal wave.

Our collies looked as if they were going to take off.

I didn’t think that such a wind was forecast, so when we got home I checked the weather. This is what it said: ‘Sunny intervals and a gentle breeze.’

I looked at the week ahead and was amused to read the varying descriptions of the wind. They ranged from ‘gentle breeze’ to ‘fresh breeze’ to ‘moderate breeze’ to ‘strong breeze’.

There was no mention of ‘wind’. When a really strong wind is forecast, the image is one of black clouds, and we refer to this as ‘black wind’.

The wind plays an important part in our lives by the edge of the ocean.

When the beach is strewn with seaweed, we need an east wind to clear it. When the wind is in the north, as well as being chilly, visibility will be clearer.

When the wind is whirling all around us, we call it a ‘scurgy wind’.

The wind played an important part in the birth of the church.

At Pentecost, the disciples experienced a strange wind blowing through the room they were in and they felt the presence of God come upon them as never before.

As many of our churches lie closed, and those that are open are constrained by many factors, should we pray for that Pentecostal wind to enliven us again?

Could the church emerge from this crisis stronger, more missional, more Kingdom centred?

Could the wind blow away the cobwebs of inertia and complacency and make us a church fit for purpose?

My prayer is for a scurgy wind for the church.