Turbines

           Have you ever seen giant turbines standing out in a field? I know they’re controversial, but there’s something about them that I like. They’re ingenious—harnessing the wind, a resource that flows around us all the time. Windmills in Holland do the same thing.

            As I’ve driven by these gigantic birds flying stationary in the sky, I notice that the blades seem to scarcely move. Not much is happening, I conclude. The wind isn’t blowing very much. A sad lethargy hangs over the forest of metallic blades. More, more! Faster, faster! I want the propellers to spin like a child’s whirligig. What my eyes tell me and what the reality is are quite different. The seemingly slow whirl of a turbine is generating more power than I know.

            

            The Christian’s life is like the turbines. Don’t you simply want to grow, to have the Spirit of God blast through your life, purifying, transforming so that sin is a thing of the past and service is a “breeze”?  Don’t you want things to change or a situation to change? I do.

            But that just doesn’t seem to happen very often, does it? Change comes slowly. Maybe it doesn’t, though. Perhaps the change is happening all the time, and we are oblivious.

            Last week I was troubled about something. New though it was, it was also related to a struggle that I’d been experiencing for some time. I kept talking with God about the various aspects of the problem, but nothing seemed to move very significantly.

            Then suddenly, over the weekend, the wind blew! I never would have anticipated what happened. Because of that, I know that the wind of God’s activity coursed through that difficulty and changed it and me. God had been working change when things looked like those scarcely-moving wind turbines.

            Even if you and I see the turbines of our lives moving slowly, the truth is that the wind of God’s activity is moving forward for our good, doing far more than what is visible. God is always, always at work, and I tell myself that truth often to remind myself.

Sometimes wind turbines don’t generate power when it’s needed because there is no wind. There is no such thing with God, however. He is never at a loss when it comes to turning the blades of change. If anything slows him down, it’s us, as he waits on us to be able to handle the change, accept and submit to the change, and acknowledge that He is the one who made the change—like when we wait on children to be ready to learn the next lesson in life.

There are times I get weary in the process. And when I do, I ask God if I could just climb up in his lap and feel his arms around me. I think it makes him smile. It does me. He is so patient!


Photos by Dawn Turner