The joy that comes like the wind is a mystery. We cannot command it or work it up. Like the wind, such joy comes from “out of the blue.” And sometimes just as mysteriously it leaves. If happiness is like a dog, joy is a cat that comes when it pleases.
Often, we read one dull verse of Scripture after another until the wind lifts a verse into our heart and fills us with joy. Sometimes in prayers of thanksgiving, we dutifully move from blessing to blessing when suddenly joy breaks out and carries our hearts into God’s presence.
Although we cannot make the wind come or go, we can set our sails. Long ago Teckla and I took my mom and our kids out into the bay on restored sailing ship The Lady Grey. It was fitted with a small diesel engine, but once in the middle of bay, the crew shut off the engine and scampered aloft to unfurl the sails. At first the sails hung loose, but as the ship turned slightly, the sails billowed out. All we could hear was the creak of the rigging and the slap of the waves against the bow.
So how do we set our sails to catch the wind of the Spirit? By slowing down, getting still, and being fully present. Often, we are like the noisy diesel engine—spouting fumes and running on our own strength. A verse of Scripture or the musky fragrance of spring may suddenly fill our sail and carry us into God’s presence. A child’s smile can be a gust that moves our heart out of the doldrums of depression.
Wordsworth famously defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings . . . recollected in tranquility.” This describes the joy that comes on the wind that blows through our best memories. As we quiet ourselves before God and present a heart of gratitude, God’s Spirit brings memories of peace, joy, and wholeness. Sometimes the memory of smallest things brings the greatest joy.
A friend of mine described a time when he flew his kite on a day with almost no breeze. He ran hard to get his kite up. Little by little he let out more string. Eventually, it caught a current of wind undetectable from the ground. He let out the last of string and tied the end to fence. The wind held his kite in place.
The spiritual disciplines like prayer, Scripture, solitude, and silence are ways we set our sails or get our kite up when we feel no wind. Nothing we do can force the wind to blow, but if we have faith in God’s desire to fill us with joy, we are always ready for our sails to fill with joy and bring us into God’s presence.
