Against the Wind

​Last night in a conversation with a good friend, this classic Bob Seger song was brought up as a definite parallel to those who struggle with addiction. It seems we have always been trying to go Against The Wind! 

That can be a very bad thing or in some cases result in a good thing. First scenario, those who use and abuse it are usually feeling like they are on the outside looking in, mostly fighting an uphill battle to gain self esteem, status or approval. Real life seems to be an outside element of where they are which is usually a fantasy land they created to cope. And when they try to fit in they usually are runnin' against that wind.

For the purpose of this writing that wind is the right way people believe you should go, it is also the right way God thinks you should go. Now if it is the wind of God blowing in our faces, we should turn around and let it take us to a new level of life where we ride on the wings of eagles soaring with the wind and above the fray of ordinary life. We are free to be us, breaking the chains of whatever binds us, and following into the footsteps of a Spirit filled life.

That life leads us in many directions! Some of which requires a massive dose of faith rather than a massive dose of alcohol to give us courage.

That brings me back to the wind of people blowing in our faces. We love people because for sure the Lord said the greatest commandments were to "love the lord thy God with all your heart and all your soul, and all of thy mind. And, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself". We hear that, we truly want to do that, but nowhere in there does it say we always have to listen to our neighbor's advice.

Too many times in life we let the opinion of others get in the way of following that wind of God that propels us. Someone once said, "Those people that say you can't do it need to stay out of the way of the people that are doing it". Not meant to be a mean or depriving statement, only a reminder that nothing is impossible with God. Everything can be impossible if we always listen to others.

Simply examine which wind is blowing in our faces, and then choose that which can take us where we have never been before.