“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” – John 3:8
Many circumstances are simply beyond our control. They are like the wind in West Texas where I grew up. Out there it blows almost all the time, and you can complain all you want, but there’s not a darn thing you can do about it. Wind is perhaps the most elusive and least controllable of all nature’s forces. Rain, for example, cannot be controlled in its occurrence, but at least the water it produces can be captured and contained in reservoirs, and flooding can be averted much of the time by the creation of watersheds, dams, and levies. But wind can neither be captured nor its effects averted. It simply comes and goes as it wills.
Such are the uncontrollable and destructive circumstances we are facing today, most notably the COVID 19 pandemic and the resulting challenges it has created with the economy. We can complain all we want, but there’s not a darn thing we can do about it. Or is there? Although no one can control the West Texas wind, it can be used for good. Decades ago someone discovered that water can be pumped out of underground aquifers by the use of windmills, providing much needed water to thirsty livestock. In recent years that concept has advanced much further as hundreds of giant towers have been erected with huge propellers that turn gracefully in the wind generating pollution-free electricity. Billions of dollars are being invested in this new technology of using otherwise annoying uncontrollable wind for the good of mankind.
None of us, except for the scientists and medical experts of course, can stop this dreaded deadly disease. But we can slow its spread by taking the prescribed precautions, comforting those infected by it, and supporting those on the front lines battling it. Neither can we fix the economy, but we can be good citizens by contributing toward the support of our neighbors facing job loss and financial crisis. For just like in West Texas, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” And like the wind, we cannot control the circumstances we are facing. But we can find ways to be windmills in the midst of it, things to do for the good of mankind.