When it Rains it Pours

"When it rains it pours."

Everyone knows this phrase, has heard it, and probably used it. Basically, it means that nothing ever comes in small doses. If one thing is gonna go wrong, 10 things are going to go wrong. It's just the way it is, and recently this has proven to be incredibly true in my life. However, it is not necessarily proving true in the traditional meaning of the phrase.

Rain can be both negative and positive. Rain is life giving, refreshing, cooling. It is necessary for life. It is beautiful. It results in splashing in puddles, kissing/dancing in the rain, it adds life and color to plants and flowers. There are so many amazing, fun, beautiful aspects of rain, and I personally love a good rain storm!

Rain can be damaging as well. Too much rain can cause flooding, death, destruction of homes and landscapes. There are also many other dangerous thing that are associated with heavy rain, lightning, tornadoes, high winds, are all usually accompanied by rain. There are a lot of people who don't like the rain, especially lots of it. It makes everything damp and dark.

So, recently it has been raining and pouring in my life. I'm not going to go into all the details, but there has been an overabundance of things happening in my immediate family, extended family, friends, church, etc... all in the past month or so, and it has caused me to think about a lot of stuff.

There has been a good deal of the "bad" rain. Lots of bad, really hard things going on, and they just pile on top of each other. They caused me to be angry, which, if you know me, is really weird, and, to a certain extent, caused me to be disillusioned with several things. This definitely felt like the flooding, destruction causing, dark rain, and it would be incredibly easy to focus on this and drown in the downpour.

However, "When it rains it pours," doesn't just refer to "bad" stuff. There has also been some incredible, amazing, happy and joyous things happening in my immediate family, extended family, friends, church, etc... And I have been recently realizing that I need to grab on to these and appreciate them and praise God for them!

In John 10:10 it says, "I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance." This verse is so incredible. It reveals that Jesus came to give us abundant life, life that is vibrant, energetic, overflowing. Christ came so that we can be fully alive! This is amazing! It's important to remember though, that abundant, full life means that we will have the full experience, and unfortunately, that experience involves both good and bad. 

Being alive means feeling emotion, experiencing joy and suffering, seeing the good and the bad. It is hard at times, it is often hard, but it is also more fulfilling than anything else, and when you have True Life you will never drown in the rain, you will always see the silver lining on the rainclouds and the rainbow arching over the flood.

Ted Dekker wrote Forbidden, a book about a world where everyone is "dead" devoid of emotion, but at perfect peace. Here are sever quotes from that book that I love.  

"Only corpses rest in peace.”

“Then leave us dead! Let the living crave what I already have. The world is at peace!”

“A corpse may rest in peace, but make no mistake, it has no life. No true humanity. No true love or joy, not even true peace, any more than a rock has peace.”

“And no anguish or ambition or greed or all of the pain that comes with your kind of love.”

 

“You only feel pain because you are alive, boy!” the keeper thundered. “This is the mystery of it. Life is lived on the ragged edge of that cliff. Fall off and you might die, but run from it and you are already dead!”

 

So, in conclusion, while rain is not always good, regardless of what is happening, God is! He is faithful and just. He is the light shining through the clouds, the rainbow, the silver lining, the lifeboat to save us when we feel like we are about to drown. He will not remove us from the pain, and in so doing remove us from life, but he lifts us up in the hard times and helps us see the beauty in the raindrops when all we are focused on is the flood.

 

So, "Bring on the rain." ... "Rain is a good thing."

 

Praise God!