Where did this term headwind come from? In looking this up the actual definition, a headwind is “a wind opposed to the course of a moving object.” Well isn’t that fitting?
When it comes to cycling a headwind is something that I absolutely cannot stand…
Imagine that you are riding at 18 miles an hour, into a headwind of 10mph The amount of energy that you will have to exert to maintain that 18mph is double what you would need on a calm day.
As if riding at a sustained 18mph isn’t hard enough, with that kind of wind, right in your face, you have to work twice as hard to get the same results!
Not long ago I was riding into a 15mph headwind and had this thought as I was trying to think of anything other than the wind….. sometimes, in our spiritual journeys we have this headwind, a “wind opposed to the course of a moving object.” The “moving object” is us, striving to be more like Christ and the “headwind” is the enemy, who wants nothing more than to throw us off course.
As we journey through life there are times that we feel as though it takes twice as much effort to do something the things that we know we are called to. That’s because we have this enemy, a “headwind”, that when coming at us straight on, it is opposing our course of action, this path that we are trying to continue on.
What does this look like for you? Perhaps you are in the midst of riding head-on into the wind, perhaps you just got through a storm and maybe you are in a place where you are starting to feel a slight breeze….
I don’t know what you are being called from, through or to. Regardless, at times you can be going 18 mph toward the place in life that you feel you should most be. Then there is a headwind that comes in, blasts you in the face and you quickly find that you are having to put forth twice as much effort just to keep up the pace you were at…. let alone being able to increase your speed at all.
How easily do we just want to stop!? Like… really? This headwind is just sucking all my energy, I will just stop and pick it up another day. But can I share something with you? Please don’t quit now.
Please don’t put whatever it is that you were working on, whatever race that you running, whatever course you are on… don’t put them on hold just because of a little headwind. There is strength that comes from overcoming that. Our muscles are strengthened, our hearts are made stronger, our faith is increased our desire grows and the next time that we come across that 10 mph wind we find that this wind doesn’t have the same negative effect on us.
“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things that we cannot see.” Hebrews 11:1
In the midst of the greatest wind storm, blowing straight at us, we cannot always see how God is moving in our lives, but we have a hope a promise that He is there and that He is moving.
Abiding Trust 