second wind

When I was in high school I had a summer job cutting grass for a local company that worked on Skidaway Island at this really nice country club community. My job was basically to drive around all day and cut people's grass and make their yards look nice. I remember having to get there just about everyday at 6:30am. Now, I don't know how many of you reading this really know...but I have never really like waking up at 6:30am. Not then, not now, not for pay, not for pleasure. I will wake up early if I have, but I'm not excited about it. Make a long story short, we would have to get there that early so that we could actually be ready to crank those lawnmowers up at 7:00am. (That's the earliest we were allowed to start cutting grass at someone's house.)

We also started work that early in the morning because by about 10:00am in South Georgia in the middle of July is just HOT!! I distinctly remember everyday me and the guys I worked with would start out working really hard, knocking out job after job from 7:00am 'til about 10:30am or so. Then you would eat lunch. Well, once you ate lunch, there just wasn't a whole lot of excitement. Your belly's full, your sitting comfortably, and the A/C in the restaurant feels real good. After lunch there was always this lull 'til about 2:00pm. During this lull we were lucky to accomplish much of anything. We were spent. We were tired. We were out of gas (physically, not for the lawnmowers).

Then about 2:00pm something would happen. We would catch a second wind. Do you know what a second wind is? It's that moment where you receive this burst of energy that pushes you, it drives you towards your goal. In those days, my second wind regularly came about 2:00pm as I would looking forward to better times (mostly quitting time 3:30pm).

Today, most of my day is spent doing stuff on a computer, or sitting in meetings, or visiting with people, or playing my guitar planning worship services. Nowadays, my work day is not nearly as physical. So, I don't need or experience a second wind everyday around 2:00pm. Most of the time, if I've gotten enough sleep the night before, then I will have plenty of energy to do whatever I need to do.

Even though I don't need a physical second wind anymore, there are still times when I need a fresh wind to blow in my life. There are times when I need an emotional second wind. Maybe I'm depressed because things aren't going my way. Maybe I'm insecure about what people think about me and I begin to believe the lies that are floating around in my head.

Sometimes, I need a spiritual second wind. There are times when spiritually I feel dried up like stale, crusty bread. I feel like I could turn to dust at any minute. You know those feelings, when you feel like you are thousands of miles away from God. You feel like you just can't get it right.

Believe me there are still plenty of times that I need a fresh wind to blow in my life. Do you need a fresh wind? I God could blow a second wind in to your life right now, where would you need it? In your relationships? In the way you get along with your parents? (or if you are an adult reading this, with your children or husband/wife?) In your motivation to stick with your goals? In your desire to grow and be discipled? Maybe you need a second wind to blow just so you can feel like God is even there at all?

Whatever your situation, there is good news. God desires to breath a fresh wind into your life. He's been breathing life into things for quite a while. If you don't know what I'm talking about here are a few scriptures I would recommend checking out.

Genesis 2:7 - God breathes life into man and woman
Ezekiel 37 - God breathes life into an entire nation of bones. (If you don't know this story, this is a must read!!)
John 20:22 - Jesus breathes on his disciples and they receive the Holy Spirit. (talk about a second wind)

I don't know about you, but one of the places I CAN go to regularly receive a second wind is to church. Everytime I go to church expecting a fresh wind to blow, it does. Everytime I go expecting God to meet me and revive me, He does. Everytime. The problem is that most of the time I show up at church with frustrations, distractions, distresses, and problems, and I'm so focused on them that I miss the second wind that's waiting there to carry past all that junk. I wonder what would happen if more people came to church expecting God to move? Would He? I wonder what would happen if we got into the habit of expecting to meet God in worship? Would it spill over into the rest of our lives causing us to invite people to church to come receive what we've received? Hmm...I wonder? If God could meet me and give me a second wind at church, that fresh experience might actually create momentum in my life to change who I am, change my circumstances, and change my outlook on life the other 6 days a week?

I don't know about you, but I'm going to start looking a little more for that second wind

goodnight
jeremy