Rhythm of the Rain
I had a test to write last night, online, but to get access to it, I needed a CD. When I was ready to write the test, I couldn't find the CD. It was in fact, in my office, at the church, but I couldn't drive there because my car was parked in and I wasn't going to wake up my roommate. So I walked there, twenty minutes each way would be a good way to clear my mind, if for no other reason than to prepare for the test.

When I left on my walk, it's was misty and perhaps drizzling, but otherwise a pleasant night. Not long into my walk however, it stared to rain, enough to make normal people run for cover or turn back, but I had to write this test, and I can handle rain. As I got closer to the church, and my warm dry office, I thought back to my days as a tobacco primer, when often we would also have to work in the rain.

My brother and I were in agreement, that on these days it was better to have lunch in the field, or not at all. Even though we were wearing rainsuits, we were still quickly soaking wet, and a lunch break would only indulge in temporary dryness, making the rest of the day more miserable. When we were working, and when I was walking, there was acceptance, "I'm wet, but that's fine, because I've got to keep going." In the warm dry shed where we ate lunch, as in my office, was when the discomfort of the whole thing set in. Guys would peel off wet clothing and/or change into drier clothes. That dry comfort reminded us of how uncomfortable we were in the wet.

Comfort is fine, except that the temporary comfort, even luxury, of removing the wet clothes, only heightened the discomfort of resuming labour in the wet conditions. Once we had experienced dryness, the wetness that was already uncomfortable, was even more despised. On the field or on the sidewalk, I had gradually become accustomed to the discomfort, allowing myself to trudge forward.

I was looking for a spiritual metaphor in this, good pastors are always looking for sermon illustrations, but I was looking in the wrong direction. I wanted to find an example that glorified my "farm-boy, work with what's dealt to you" attitude. The revelation came however, when I looked at it the other way.

We face a lot of crap, and we often tire of dealing with it, so we get used to it. We go through our lives gradually deadening our senses to the evils and injustices around us. But it is when we step into the warm and dry atmosphere of spiritual renewal that we are reminded of the state of the world around us. Through prayer, reading of Scriptures and experiencing Jesus, we should be so uncomfortable with the injustices of our society that we no longer accept the status quo.

I invite you to step into the dry, peel off those wet clothes, those blinders to evil and take others with you into your place of dry.

   [ posted by William @ 9:19 AM ]