Rain, Rain! Don’t Go Away – You are Welcome in this Day
Oh, the wonderful rain that has come to us in Frisco. Two days in a row means the blistering heat has subsided and I don’t have to water plants and grass. My two fur-pals haven’t been too crazy about it – they don’t like playing or walking in the rain. I’ve learned not to complain about the heat, the cold or rain, because, here in Texas, it’s subject to change daily. We might as well brace ourselves and go with the flow!
Isn’t that like our personal “climates”, too? One day we are bright with a sunny disposition. Things are going our way — even the lights are turning green before we get to them. And, another day, it’s cloudy, rainy with thunderstorms overtaking us. The thrills of that “shout-hallelujah” victory can be overtaken by that “woe is me” agony of defeat.
But it’s inevitable that there will be ups and downs in our lives. And, Lord, have mercy – we have had plenty of ups and downs the last few months, haven’t we? A country music legend, Lynn Anderson, made the song “Rose Garden” famous. The lyrics were: “I beg your pardon. I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, there’s got to be a little rain sometime.”
When we read the writings of the Apostle Paul, we might think that he and Lynn Anderson partnered up in writing that song. Paul knew suffering and he wrote to us about it, but he weathered it, because he also knew God’s peace in the suffering. He was talking about a calm that comes because of God’s love for us. The calm that comes even when the storm clouds gather. Paul even had the audacity to tell us to “rejoice in our sufferings”! He said in Romans 3:3-5 “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Really? We’re supposed to rejoice in our sufferings? Sufferings like being in isolation, having to home school our kids, an illness, a relationship break-up, a divorce, facing bankruptcy, the death of a loved one, wayward children, losing a job or even suffering through this presidential election rancor– we are supposed to rejoice in those sufferings? God didn’t mean for us to celebrate loses or even ignore pain or suffering. No, no, no. Instead, he meant that suffering is a part of life. No matter how many times we complain that life is not fair, Paul wants us to know that suffering (a little rain) is the part of our lives that helps us grow to be hope-filled people of character and determination. That rain gives us hope for tomorrow’s beautiful rose gardens in our lives.
What Lynn Anderson’s song doesn’t tell us, and what Paul wanted so desperately for us to know, is that God loves us so much that He promised never to leave us alone. The rain comes and suffering comes, but with God, we’ll receive patient endurance. And patience leads to character. And character leads to hope. And hope will not disappoint us. That’s a mighty fine recipe for pulling us from the darkest of times, to the brightest sunshine times EVER. That’s when we’ll be singing “Rain, rain – don’t go away – you are welcome in this day!” Because, tomorrow we’ll be singing “I’m walking on sunshine – whoa oh! – and don’t it feel good?”