After my run this morning, I decided to tackle … the shed. I was already sweaty, so my thinking was, “How much dirtier can I get?”
Keep reading, but the answer is a lot messier.
Now, my shed is just a storage shed. It has no power or frills, but it has a lot of dirt. Correction: it had a lot of dirt. I cranked up my Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor backpack blower, and let that high-powered wind blow all that nasty junk out of the shed.
Now, it did get the dirt out. But before all the dirt was out, it was up, over, around, and on everything, including me. When The B99 came out to check on me, she made that sound that wives make when they’re trying to communicate appreciation, while also sending a clear message that we would not be touching until I had showered. Maybe even two or three times.
The Bible uses various metaphors for the Holy Spirit, and one of those is wind.
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:1-2, emphasis mine)
My shednado experience has given me a slightly different perspective on what that moment must have been like for the early church. Sure, the Spirit came with tongues of fire and filled those in the room with power, but I wonder how much dirt got stirred up and blown out, too.
We know that the wind of the Spirit caused a mess among ethnicities that preferred to be apart from each other. You can read those stories in Acts 6, Acts 10, and Acts 15. We tend to romanticize the stories in the Bible and think something is wrong with the modern church because we often struggle relationally. The truth is that when the Holy Spirit is allowed to move, he tends to make things messier than before he moved.
I didn’t have to get messy today. The shed could have stayed exactly like it was. But we have plans for some home improvements, and before that can happen, the shed had to be cleaned out.
How often do we, as followers of Jesus, find ourselves stuck because we are unwilling to take risks and would rather maintain the appearance of having everything under control, rather than admitting that we are messier than we were when we first answered the call to follow?
My guess is a good number of us. But I say, no more. Come, Holy Spirit, and breathe on us again. Like you did in the Upper Room, blow our junk out, and breathe your power in.
Stir us up, even if that means you mess it up.
