Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I’ve been talking with God; fact is I spent the entire thirty-six minutes of my morning walk with Max going over a couple of particular items. I have often found that when I wake up first thing and something is already on my mind, drilling down into my heart, prayer really has to be the first order of business for the day.

For me it involves a lot of simply speaking my thoughts and my concerns aloud into the early morning stillness, often over and over again, listening to them, almost holding them in my hands and feeling the weight of them – and sometimes they are extremely heavy.

This morning I specifically asked for a miracle. And I pointed out to God that in the world of miracles this would be an especially efficient use of one, because of the domino effect, the chain-reaction of positives. You know, like the parable of the talents – God would be guaranteed a good return on the initial miracle investment!

But what I really honed in on was this simple prayer. “Lord God,” I said, “I want to feel a breeze from somewhere.”

“A Breeze from Somewhere”

It’s a phrase that goes way back, to a friend who lost her husband after a long struggle. She went into the hospital chapel for comfort, but found one of those “gospel” tracts that are loaded with bad theology and often damaging.

This one was both dripping with judgement and trite – especially in response to the immediacy of loss and grief. In addition to the colorful if you die you are going directly to hell imagery, there was another message; “Every time the world closes a door God opens a window.”

Rebekah, feeling our friend’s pain, and angry at the insensitivity of so much that is offered in response to devastating grief, said something about filing a complaint at the hospital chaplain’s office.

“Oh no,” our friend replied, showing her typical grace and kindness. “It’s all right; I don’t know if God opened a window… but I do feel a breeze coming from somewhere.”

And that’s it, I guess. Yes I want that miracle, and God knows I will continue making my case for it. But today, and hopefully again tomorrow, what I need most of all is to feel a breeze coming from somewhere.

May you feel it too – DEREK