To Harness the Wind

There was a man who followed the wind. One day he came upon a large plain.And as he approached it, he saw a man on a strange contraption.It was a platform with wheels, and it had a mast on it with a large sail.

"What are you doing?" asked the man on the contraption.

"I am following the wind," returned the first man.

"You will never get anywhere that way, just on your two feet," remarked the sailor. "You need to harness the wind, then you can follow it with ease."

"How do I do that?"

"You need to fix the mast of faith to the platform of commitment and unfurl on it the sail of surrender. If you get these in the right amounts, they will cause the wind to carry you along."

The walking man was thinking about this when he met another sail platform. This one was very colorful and covered with lights and had a device on the mast that put out strange melodious sounds as the wind blew through it.

"To truly harness the wind," explained the sailor of the second craft, "you must obtain this device that produces the sounds of heaven."

The man walked on, considering this. 

Then he saw a sail platform all draped in black. The sail was black, and the driver stood up against the mast with his arms stretched out to the side.

"What are you doing?" asked the walking man.

"I am crucifying myself with the King," replied the man. "If I put my inner self to death, I will be able to perfectly harness the wind."

As the walking man tried to figure this out, he came upon a man whose sail platform and clothes were totally white.

"What do you do to harness the wind?" asked the walking man, curious.

"To harness the wind, you must be perfect," returned the man in white.

"You mean you have no wrong desires?"

"I still have infirmities, but I am free from intentional sin."

As the man considered how he might make sense of this, he reached the hill on the other side of the plain. He looked back and saw the people on the sail platforms. They seemed to be going straight and had a hard time turning. And when the wind was not hitting their sails right, they slowed to a crawl. He had no idea what they would do when they hit rough country.

As he stood and stared, the wind seemed to speak to him. "I cannot be harnessed, I will not be tamed. You do not change Me, I will change you. Just follow Me." And the man left, following the wind.