When it’s rainy season, I start to shiver and shake. The damp and cold go right through the bones. The roads are muddy, and often impassable. The house leaks and we have to be ready to mop, depending on what direction the rains come from, because here…the storms come from all directions. Never know. Just be ready.
What does all this rain bring? Well, here in Africa, it brings water to the people and their crops. It gives them hope for some compensation for all the work they go through. They pray for rain. Sometimes though, the rain takes down the walls of their houses, or floods their crops. Either way, they need it. Without it, there is no growth or hope.
Life has its fair share of rainy seasons. We are deluged, muddied and cold. We can’t go anywhere because we are stuck behind the mud. We have to wait it out. Yet, when it’s all over, there is a rainbow. A promise of God’s provision. The rain has been cleansing. And sustenance for the dryness we have experienced.
Even when we can’t see the benefits of all that rain brings, and it comes in a deluge of experiences and confusion…we can know that the seeds are taking root. We will have fruit from this. God is guiding us…we just not might be seeing the rainbow just yet.
Often our lives have these cycle of seasons. We suffer from dryness, and it can be for long periods of time. Even when a bit of rain comes down, it just runs off and doesn’t really do any good. We need a lot of rain to penetrate into the dryness. We need a soaking. That’s when the seeds start to germinate and take hold.
If we live a life of constant spiritual dryness there will be no fruit. We can go to church periodically and hear something that touches our spirit, but it doesn’t bear any fruit…we are too dry. Reading the bible, and saying the odd prayer doesn’t do much good, it doesn’t go deep enough. All we end up with are tiny bits of life, the odd sprouting of grass. But it withers quickly. We hear of people getting close to Jesus, and it fills us with fear. It sounds so foreign…and we don’t want to give up control of our thoughts and emotions. Our life is still ours, even if dry.
What can one do? I know what I need to do. I need to be able to give up and get a good soaking of God’s love. I need to surrender to that outpouring of emotion and just accept a full on deluge of God’s presence. And I need it for more than one day…I need it for a full rainy season. A constant flow of grace, and a surrender of my control. That is the only way I will see fruit. And I want to see a lot of fruit!