Do You Need A Refreshing Rain?

It’s been raining a lot. The kind of rain that ruins plans and makes you want to drive immediately home. The kind that leaves you feeling vitamin D deficient and bummed.

Also, I’ve been in a slump (just like the sky), which has completely sucked. I’ve been edging my way out of it. It’s been slow and painful. It’s mostly on the creative side, but I let it creep into other areas too.

When this happens, I need to go to my favorite place … the beach. I haven’t been able to go because of the storms, but the other morning I woke up to no rain. Making up my mind that I needed to get out of this slump, I immediately jumped out of bed, and off to the ocean I went.

As I sat there with my toes dug into the sand and my journal on my lap, I began to write. Honestly, it may just be my favorite thing I’ve ever written. I wrote until my hand hurt, and I let the tears fall. I was broken, and I was free. I closed my journal and set my sights on the waves before me.

I was perfectly content when all of a sudden, I felt a cold ping on my skin. Then another, and another, before the downpour began. I heard people yelling “Pack up, lets go!” I saw kids running to their mommies, and dads trying to fold up the beach umbrellas. I saw dogs running in circles and swimmers running out of the water. I saw the beach clear before my eyes while I just sat there allowing the rain to drench me. I started laughing when I realized that I was thankful for the rain — the very thing that I was cursing the day before.

I knew in that moment that I need the rain.

I needed that slump, as yucky as it was, because I needed to be reminded of my center. The truth is, we are going to face things that are hard, lonely, painful and heart-breaking. We are going to go through patches of despair, hopelessness, fear and rejection.

Life is going to happen.

Sometimes our creativity will be lost. Sometimes our courage will be suffocated. Sometimes our feet will stumble. As much as those things suck, we need them. We need them because they draw us closer to the heart of our King.

We need them because they mold us and shape us and help us grow.

Friend, the rain is going to come. It’s going to ruin your plans and make you question everything. It’s going to soak things that you don’t want it to touch. But it’s your choice to stay there or get out.

The thing is, we so often allow hardship to keep us down instead of rising above it. We should allow it to propel us forward instead of keeping us down. It’s our choice to take advantage of the sunlight and run to the beach. We are in charge of keeping our minds at attention. We have the power to cast out every lie of the enemy.

We can turn our gloom into rejoicing. We can decide to dance in the rain.

The Lord will open to you his good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand.  –Deuteronomy 28:12a NKJV