Dustin the Wind

                           Dust in the Wind

My wife and I, while visiting our grandchildren, were driving along route 25 in New Mexico, on our way to Taos. Not a fan of today’s pop music, when driving I listen to my favorites, such as John Denver, Harry Chapin, Joan Baez, and so may others. Today, as a part of the station on Pandora, we listened to “Dust in the Wind” by the group Kansas in the 1970s. Written by Kerry Livgren, it is a song with deep spiritual undertones, mentioning how delicate our lives are. One of the most profound lines is, “All we are is dust in the wind.” 
We are made from dust and the Bible relates that from dust we come and dust we shall return. We cannot think of our lives as merely dust to be controlled by the wind; unless, of course, we speak of the breath of God. Then we are under His complete control.
We are brought into this world without our consent. It is what we do in our lives that makes it worthwhile. Personally, I believe in service. After almost fifty selfish years, I became a high school teacher and began a life of service. With respect to Kerry Livgren, during my first fifty years I was just dust in the wind. I lived for myself and my immediate family. Although, as a small businessman, I am sure I served some people, but it was not the kind of service that is important.
As a youth, my father took me to the local Christian Science church, which I did not stay with after my years as a Marine in the 1960s. One of my Sunday school teachers had us learn, memorize, and adopt as a credo for life, one verse in the Gospels. I did: Matthew 5:16. (You can look it up). I did not live up to this during my first fifty years; for this I am sorrowful. I began living up to this idea of service to God when I began to teach, and I have enjoyed a world of unasked for and unexpected grandeur ever since. I became alive as a teacher and I truly did the good works God wanted me to do all along. I was no longer dust in the wind. I was giving all glory to God.
As with all people, there are times in my life that I feel alone and totally lost; I say this as a seventy-eight-year-old sometimes frustrated male. However, when I remember that I am made from the dust of the ground and to it I shall return, I rejoice that as a . creation of God, I am entrusted with the divine invitation to share my God-given Love to all whom I meet. This is why I write; God gives me the words and I merely put them on the page.
I may be dust in the wind, but I am God’s dust and I pray that I land on your doorstep and share the Love that is eternal.


© Russell Kendall Carter