When I was a kid, friends taught me how to figure out which way the wind is blowing. You lick your finger, stick it in the air, and move it around until you find the coldest spot – that’s the direction the wind is coming from. As adults we use the phrase, “which way the wind blows” metaphorically to indicate if we or someone else knows what’s going on. Today, if you lick your finger and stick it out here, you’ll feel a strong wind blowing, and it is angry. An angry wind is blowing through the world; I’m sure you’ve noticed.

There is a clear racial divide that seems to be continually growing, with violence begetting more violence in a terrible downward spiral. We are currently in the midst of the most contentious presidential contest in recent history, and we seem to have lost the ability to disagree agreeably. Our drug problems continue to worsen. Our economy is sputtering along with few people truly satisfied with how it’s going.

The end result of all of this is that people are angry, anxious, worried, and depressed, and those feelings of angst are finding their way into our homes, our churches and many of our relationships.

As Christians, we have an opportunity to respond to all of this in a dramatic way. In Philippians, the apostle Paul offers this advice: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (4:6).

I know, the go to answer of “Just pray!” But are we praying enough? At all? I wonder. So often we try and fix things with our own resources, for getting that we have been invited to the throne room of God, and he wants to hear what’s on our hearts. Do you want to see our homes, our churches and our communities change? Then begin with prayer. Lay these concerns before God. Ask him for peace in the midst of all this, because peace allows us to respond appropriately. Anger, anxiety and worry do not help us to think rationally or clearly, and there is plenty of those things in the world already.

May God use His Church at this time to bring peace and change to a world desperate for both.

Blessings,

Pastor John