Blowin’ in the Wind.

Bob Dylan first recorded the song “Blowin in the Wind” in 1963 on an album called “Freewheelin’ with Bob Dylan”.  He included it on at least 5 other albums including the 2000 release “The Essential Bob Dylan” that I am listening to right now.  It is #14 on Rolling Stone Magazines list of the Greatest Songs of all Time (1999).

Two things made me think about this song, this morning.  The first and most obvious is that the wind is blowin’ like crazy here in Oklahoma and if it ain’ tied down, at this point it is in Kansas.  I brag about the weather here all the time so I need to also ‘fess up to when it isn’t that great-like right now.  The wind really does “come sweeping down the plain.”  But the sun is shining…

The second thing that made me think about Bob Dylan and Blowin’ in the Wind was something that happened in our Convergence class this morning.  Part of our teaching commitment is to put the ideas, concepts, “teachings” on the table and let the students interact with them as opposed to lecturing.  The risk to this methodology is that there will be a “pooling of our ignorance” in the class rather than learning what was on the agenda for that day. But the risk is worth it because in these kinds of settings the Spirit is free to blow.

 The Bible says that the Spirit, like the wind, blows where it chooses and so no matter where you want a conversation or teaching to go, the Spirit is going to blow it a direction you might not have expected or planned, for His purpose.  For someone who spent most of his adult life teaching in a setting where there was very limited or no feedback or conversation, this type of interaction is really enjoyable.  But more important than that, there are so many Spirit directed understandings we would miss, if we never involved the students in the process of hearing from, and speaking out, what they are hearing as the Spirit speaks to them.

Linda was leading the class this morning, and she is really good at inviting participation and allowing students to share what they are hearing, and so twice this morning we heard things from the Father, through our students, who were sensitive to the Spirit as He blew through our class.

One Word was spoken from a woman who had studied the word “curse” in the Bible and learned that one meaning of cursing was to “devalue” the uniqueness of the individual and as she received it, the way to bless another person and thus remove the curse, was to speak their value to them. This was such a good Word from the Word.  But what was special was when she finished speaking she was embarrassed and began to devalue her Word and herself and as a class we were able to break that curse off of her by doing for her what she had just taught us from what the Spirit had taught her.

The point here is not so much what she heard or to evaluate her Word, but to say the answers to life are Blowin’ in the Wind, the Wind of the Spirit and if we will listen and invite people to share what they are hearing from the Father through His Spirit it can be life changing.

The wind is blowing out here in Oklahoma and it does get old, but the Wind is also blowing out here and it never gets old.