"This house," said the real estate salesman, "has both its good points and its bad points. To show you I'm honest, I'm going to tell you about both. The disadvantages are that there is a chemical plant one block south and a slaughterhouse a block north."

"What are the advantages?" inquired the prospective buyer.

"The advantage is that you can always tell which way the wind is blowing."

It is important to know "which way the wind is blowing".  But it is also possible to allow that knowledge to affect us more than it ought to.    I heard of a well-known hobo during the Great Depression of the 1930's who was asked how he decided which direction he would go every morning.   He said, "It's easy.   I find the way the wind is blowing, face away from it, and just let it blow me along."

And it's easy for us all to live our lives in just that way.   We look around to see which direction everybody else is headed and we just turn our backs to the wind and drift along.   And rather than make an effort to change the world (which is very difficult), we follow the easier path of letting the world determine the direction we take.

May these words serve to remind us of what our task as Christians
is:

"Do not be conformed to this world
but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God."
(Romans 12:2)