Next week the children return to school after their summer break. There is nervous anticipation as they enter a new school year and some begin the main school for the first time. Parents are making sure that they have everything ready. Occasionally there is some last minute shopping to do. So it was with the young mother and her son who were on their way into town. She thought that everything was in hand and she had been well organised buying the new uniform at the beginning of the holidays with the idea that once she had purchased what she needed, any left over cash could be spent on days out. Just a few days ago she decided to try everything on once more just to make sure all was ok. To her amazement, the trousers were now too short for her son. She knew he had had a sudden spurt of growth but hadn't realised that he had grown that much. So she had to go and buy some more trousers. Ah, a lesson that all parents learn - you can't organize your child's growth or control their height. You can give them healthy food and make sure they eat and drink all the required nutrients of a balanced diet in order to be healthy but you cannot control or organize just how that will actually work out in reality. Some have sudden bursts of growth while others just steadily get bigger.
This past week the weather hasn't been very nice, reaching temperatures more like winter some days. In the south west we have had quite a lot of rain and wind so I was looking forward on Thursday to what I had thought, according to forecasts, was going to be a bit brighter and I would be able to get out into the garden to do some weeding and tidying up. Weather wise it was another day of disappointment. In the morning I had gone to my sister's for a coffee and chat as I normally do once a week but on the way home, the sky was getting darker and the clouds looked threatening. There was the odd spot of rain on the bus window and so my good intentions for the garden would have to wait for another day. The experts are able to forecast the weather and their accuracy is getting better with all their modern gadgetry. Although they can keep us informed as to what will probably happen, they cannot control or organize the weather.
And so it is with life. Some things just cannot be organised or controlled, no matter how we might prepare or think we have life sorted. Sadly some people think that you can actually organize an outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. The idea is that through prayer, hard work and good organisational skills, souls will be won for God's kingdom. We can plan and have projects and get people through the door into the building but that doesn't necessarily mean that they have come to a personal friendship with the Almighty. Often those who 'organize' a revival find that within a couple of years, things have pretty much gone back to the way they were before all their efforts. We humans have a tendency to think of this firm called 'The Kingdom of Heaven' whose CEO is this huge personality called God. Some in the planning department think up projects and activities and then go and present the plans before the CEO (God) and seek his approval to put them into action. I have heard leaders come up with a 5 year plan for their congregation and claim that within so many years there will be so many in the congregation and so many outreach projects. It didn't happen - because you can't organize God! 
It's actually the other way around. We need to ask God what are his plans and seek his help in living them out. We can do our best, be very active and committed, participate etc etc but accept that we must let God be God and do things his way. We talk of the 'wind of his spirit and just like the wind in real life, we cannot control or organize it according to our self-made plans. We just have to go with whatever comes. The secret of a good relationship with him is to be totally accepting of whatever he is doing and be ready to go along with the moving of his spirit, wherever that might take us. Here's to being wind-swept.
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