“The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” John 3:8 (NLT)
My friend Jen and I went off for some church training. We attend Cohorts on church multiplication and planting. We go because we feel that God gives us next steps in the plan he has for our churches and for us as leaders.
We attended one of the Cohorts last week in Kansas. We debated not going (because of Covid) but God showed up in so many ways as we registered for these courses and prayed about this trip, we felt He was giving permission. As we were flying to Kansas, Jen looked at me and said “When I was packing, I felt the distinct impression that I should pack for another day.” My eyes widened. I’ve had these God impressions before and they are no joke. She went on to explain that she discounted the idea because we were flying home on Thursday but she had the impression again so she threw some extra clothes into her suitcase. I asked her jokingly why she didn’t call me so I could pack extra too! Then I said, “I hope we don’t get stuck in Kansas.”
Thursday morning as we were packing, I remembered what Jen said. I filled up my contact case and put it in my purse. I don’t normally do that but I figured...you know. We might get stuck somewhere.
We boarded the plane, pushed back from the gate and proceeded to sit on the tarmac for 2 hours waiting to take off. High winds in Chicago (our connection) were grounding all air traffic. You guessed it, we missed our connecting flight. As the people around us grumbled and complained, we were at peace. We knew that God had gone before us and no matter what happened, He was in it. We decided in that moment to be on the look-out for whatever it was that God was doing. This peace stayed with us even as we landed in extremely high winds with the plane leaning too far to the right and too far to the left.
We checked into our hotel with no bags, no clothes not even the extra clothes Jen packed, and no toiletries. We did have the food we packed for supper because our layover would be too short to eat and my contact case. We found out that the airline was routing us to Ogdensburg, NY first and then home. Who the heck ever flies into Ogdensburg, NY? We prayed that God would lead and if we could be of service to Him in some way that He would show us.
In the middle of the night I woke up and thought “This is a wild goose chase.” I chuckled because in one of Mark Batterson’s books he tells that in some language (I think it’s Gaelic but I can’t remember for sure) that they refer to the Holy Spirit as the “Wild Goose.” If you think about it, that is so appropriate. If you are chasing a Wild Goose, you zig this way and zag that way trying to catch him. You put all your effort into it but it’s really the Goose that is in control. I think following the Holy Spirit is like that. As Jesus said, we don’t know where He comes from, we don’t know where He’s going, we just know He was there and because of that, we follow.
The rest of our flight was uneventful....except we spent more time talking to God and looking for where He was at work. We don’t know why God did what He did with our flight. We don’t know why He told us in advance that He was going to allow it. We just know He did.
We got to see the Wild Goose for a brief moment and it totally changed the trajectory of our trip. We knew we were right where God wanted us and that with Him in it, no matter what happened, it was all good.
I want to go on more Wild Goose Chases. I want to experience the Holy Spirit over and over again in my life. Even when I end up scratching my head wondering why God did that, there is nothing better. Ever.