The Bungee Cord 10-31-22

Hello,

If you have ever driven across Northeast Colorado you know that it is a far different experience than traveling from Denver into the Rockies. When I think of Colorado, I think of the beauty of the snowcapped mountains, the bubbling mountain streams, the pine and the aspen trees, and the vistas that seem to take you further than the horizon. That is the experience when one travels west from Denver.

But on my recent trip, my travels took me east of Denver to Charlotte, NC., and so I saw quite a different Colorado. The land was flat and barren, sparsely inhabited. Ranges where cattle tried to roam. No lakes. No rivers. No trees. Just an expanse of hard living ground. There was one thing, however that seemed to be able to have popped up out of this land. Windmills. Driving along I would come across a horizon full of windmills. One could say that Eastern Colorado has produced a bumper crop of windmills.

There was something strange about this crop of windmills, and that was that nary one of them was moving. Like stalagmites they stood there, motionlessly reaching into the clear blue sky. The reason for their stillness: my guess was the stillness of the day. I suspect that all of those windmills were planted there because of the regularity of a strong breeze blowing through that flat land, but on this day, there was no breeze, and with no breeze no spinning of the windmills. As I passed miles and miles of stationary windmills, it occurred to me what energy might have been created if they were spinning. Energy to do all sorts of things: light dark streets, heat cold homes, power appliances, and even make roller coasters fly on their rails. What a shame it was to see these towers of energy from doing what they were meant to do.

Sometimes we talk about life as stormy and full of gale force winds catching our sails, but there are times in life when we find ourselves in stagnant air. Loneliness. Boredom. Meaninglessness. Caught in a rut that seems to have no end. Trudging a trail where each step looks just like the last and you aren’t at all sure if you have gotten anywhere at all.

I know that for some, or many, this has become the experience of the Christian life. They find themselves to be like those motionless windmills of Eastern Colorado.

The Bible, however, tells us that God has taken hold of us and made new creations of us, creations that bring life and hope to the world. God has taken that which has its end in lifeless dust, and recreated it that it might have its end in deathless life. The Good Friday cross did not have its way with Jesus, the empty Easter tomb did. Indeed we are like those windmills of Colorado, made to bring the energy of eternal life into this world. To have our blades caught by the Holy Spirit and vigorously spin. Just like those windmills, neither are we made to stand still.

When those days come, and they do for all of us, just like those Colorado windmills, that the wind is not there. Something is keeping it from reaching our blades, know this, it will come! Maybe fronts of illness or grief are standing in its way. Maybe the world has erected walls of pressure or pleasure that are diverting the wind’s path. But remember that it was the wind (the breath) of God that blew over the emptiness and creation was born. Remember that it was the wind of God that parted the Red Sea and God’s people escaped their doom. Remember it was the wind of the Holy Spirit that blew through a Jerusalem room and lit the first disciples on fire to ignite the world with God’s grace. If you feel like your Christian faith has been caught in the doldrums of life….get ready…the wind of God is coming. God will let nothing separate you from his love in Jesus Christ, and when that love blows through your life you will feel God’s power churning inside you…inside you to energize your life with hope, peace, and joy….inside you to spill out into the world with life giving grace and mercy.

Get ready to spin!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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