Welcome, friends. Here you’ll find my weekly letters, along with short reflections throughout the week — glimpses of faith, encouragement, and the quiet ways God meets us in daily life. I’m glad you’ve stopped by.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Last night a storm threatened and a huge wind came up. That’s nothing unusual here in Nevada. It dumped over our porch swing, which banged into the gutter downspout and dislodged it. The wind is very powerful even though you can’t see it. What you can see are the effects of its blowing.

It reminded me of what Jesus said when He was talking to Nicodemus: “You hear the sound of the wind but don’t know where it comes from or where it is going… so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” He didn’t spell out “you can see the effects of it,” but He certainly implied it.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that the Spirit’s work is real and unmistakable — like the sound of the wind — but not something we can control, predict, or map out. New birth in the Spirit has a freedom and mystery to it that doesn’t follow human patterns. We can’t see the wind itself, but we can see what it does: the dust it stirs, the branches it bends, the way it changes the air around us. Jesus says the Spirit moves like that too — not always visible, but unmistakable in its effects.

Sometimes in our walk of faith, we don’t notice much happening — not in us, and not through us. But that doesn’t mean the Spirit is absent. Much of God’s work is quiet, steady, and hidden, like the wind shaping the landscape grain by grain. You may not see the change right away, but the Spirit is at work in you, and often through you, in ways you may only recognize later. May we trust that unseen movement, and stay open to the gentle stirrings of God’s Spirit in the days ahead.

If you know someone who could use a word of encouragement this week, feel free to pass this letter along or share a quiet moment with them. Sometimes the Spirit uses even small gestures to lift a heart.

            Yours in the love of God,