Believers like the wind?

It's amazing to me how often we read Scripture & we just read straight through, never really engaging the content. I was reading a passage the other night, and it hit me as I read it that, although I've read this particular passage numerous times, I had absolutely no clue what Jesus was actually saying.


Here's the passage (John 3:7-9):


⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 
⁹ Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” 


As I was reading, those verses stopped me cold. I realized that I had no clue what Jesus was actually talking about there. It didn't make sense - I mean, I know where I come from. I stayed on those verses til I felt like I had some clarity on what Jesus was saying here.


Jesus said that wind is known not by sight, but by it's effect. How many of us as believers would that characterize? I would dare say not many. By this comparison to wind, Jesus was teaching us that our effect in this world should be so strong that it is felt, but so discreet that no one can see where it came from and where it went.


When we give,  we give radically but quietly. When we minister, we keep the focus so on Him that they forget about us. When we serve, we serve with no focus on getting credit or accolades. If we can get past our own pride & need for recognition enough that Jesus can be seen and not us, the world could be changed forever.


What would the world look like if we focused less on getting the credit, less on being seen or being known, and more on making people feel the effect of our existence? What if people ceased to know us because of what we say and began to know of Him because of the effect our existence has on their world? What if people met Jesus not through our words of introduction, but because of the effect His presence in us has on them? 


Will we ever get it fully right? Of course not. At least the world will be a better place in the trying.