One morning a week or so ago I woke with a headache that despite paracetamol got worse as the morning progressed. It was a blustery day, with rain clouds scudding across the sky.
Nevertheless, I decided what I needed to do was to go out for a walk and see if the wind could blow those metaphorical cobwebs away from inside my head.
I’m happy to say that I was only about a half a mile away from home, when I felt the tension ease and the thumping in my head recede and disappear. I continued on my walk across the fields, munching on juicy blackberries as I went.
Most of the paths near where I live are round the edges of fields which had recently been harvested and then ploughed ready for the next year’s crops. It was lovely to see the dark soil, turned over and broken up into smaller pieces and levelled out ready for seed to be sown. (I’m not a farmer- so apologies to any farmers out there – perhaps the seed had already been sown).
Many of us have been celebrating harvest at this time of year, and thanking God for his bountiful gifts.
Let us also thank him for winds that blow through us, and disperse those worries that weigh heavily. Let us thank him for the rain that soaks the earth. The Holy Spirit was sent as a rushing wind, and people were transformed and renewed. Jesus described himself as living water, and said, “drink of me and you will never be thirsty.”
Let us be blown away and soaked through as we start a new season of life on the farm, but also as we start a new season in the church. Let the wind of the Holy Spirit blow those cobwebs of complacency, of anxiety, and of doubt, and may the rain of living water quench our thirst, so that we may be refreshed and renewed with energy and hope, ready to serve the living God. AMEN