Feel the Shift
I find the word “Shift” to be quietly powerful. Like a whisper in the wind, a shift of something often is a sign of something mighty is in the works. A few shifts that come to mind to me are the shift of gears in a transmission, a shift of momentum in a game, and the shift of the tide.
Let’s talk cars first. One of my passions is muscle cars. My dad used to drag race. He had a 55 Chevy with a 327-Corvette engine in it with a 4-speed transmission. I’m not sure what transmission it had, but I remember the long stick shift coming out of the floor with a white pool ball used to grip when shifting. I can only imagine what it felt like when shifting through the gears as you watched the tachometer sitting on the dash as the RPM’s were pushed to the limits before each shift.
I first felt this shift of power in my first vehicle, a 68-Chevy Truck with a souped up 305-motor with a 3-Speed on-the-tree. For those of you who don’t follow, that means you shifted gears with a gear stick located on the column of the steering wheel. It was crazy low geared allowing me to spin my tires through all three gears or nearly pop the front wheels off the ground in first gear. I could feel the shift of power as I shifted through each gear. As I maxed out the RPMs in first gear, I jammed the clutch to the floor with my left foot and quickly slid the gear shift smoothly into second gear unleashing another level of power. Knowing that if I let the RPM’s go too high before shifting, the engine would at some point blow. Since not everyone knows how to use a standard transmission these days, let me take you to another shift.
Uncle Mo is a beast. Much like the wind, you can’t see momentum coming, but when it hits, everything changes. The shift of momentum affects all athletes, all sports, and the result of nearly every game. I have “momentum changer” as one of the top requirements on my list when recruiting. Players with the ability to look at the beast and punch it directly in the face are far and few between. This is why coaches often have to call timeouts to help their team or athletes regroup and hopefully shift gears.
I believe the most powerful example of shifts is in God’s nature. I was once fishing in Alaska on a river that flowed into the ocean. It was not a large river, like the Mississippi, but was connected to a decent size lake. We were not catching any fish as the current was flowing towards the ocean. It was at that moment that something happened that blew my mind. In an instant, because of the shift of the tide, the river current shifted and began flowing in the opposite direction. Instantaneously, the fish began biting! How amazing is it that the power of the tide shifted the flow of river!
In my next post, I will take this perspective to another level and look at what the Bible says about the shifting of the wind. Here is a small taste!
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:5-8 AMP