Over the last 48 hours the weather and I have something in common. And as I think about it, I wonder if you too share something common with me and with what just happened outside?
Sunday as we began our worship time together at Bethesda my liturgist, John, stood before the congregation and spoke about how he read that the upcoming weather forecast was going to usher in some 'winter-like' weather. Chuckling he said to me, the recent transplant from Pittsburgh, that the folks here in South Carolina do some crazy stuff when freezing rain comes into our lives. I braced myself for the cold, but I don't know if I was truly ready for it.
We haven't had a lot of cold as I was accustomed to before my time with Bethesda. It been a bit chilly but nothing a warm sweater won't fix. But the upcoming weather signaled that winter was coming. . . and the rain did come.
Throughout Sunday evening and into early Monday morning the rain fell hard. The wind blew. Outside large tree limbs fell from the trees and broke into smaller bits that litter my yard. I witnessed some lightening and heard a little clap of thunder. The temperature dropped from 65 to 40 in just a couple hours and as it did my shoulders dropped a bit too.
Waking up on Monday to take the dogs out I saw that it was still raining. The wind still blew and the water was wet on my face as I petitioned the girls to come back to the house. I quickly walked through the rain to the office and could feel myself getting chilled to the bone. I sighed and said to no one in particular, "I didn't miss this" as I unlocked the church and turned on the lights.
And the rain kept coming. Now in sheets the rain flooded the parking lot a little. Puddles began to form as large as a car and I could hear the wind whipping through the windows and doors.
The weather was a beating up the world outside, and by extension I felt a little beaten up by it as well.
I wonder if you have felt the same way today--beaten and bruised. Covid has been with us so long. I am hearing about more and more friends who have be diagnosed with the virus. I hear stories more consistently of false positives and asymptomatic results. I read emails and answers calls that hint at wishing we could go back to normal but at the same time those calls and emails don't know what normal looks like anymore.
The storms of life have made us forget just as easily as they have bruised our souls. . .
But then I looked up. I slid my book away from the front of my desk, and gazed outside. The air is still chilly, it's still January (even in the south), but the rain has ended. . . the clouds are gone. . . those large puddles are drying up and disappearing.
What started as a feeling of oppression and pressure has lessened and I see the blue and I remember that God is with me. He is with me even when I feel bruised and worn. God is with me when the rains of my life bring more positive tests and more pressure to be evangelistically silent. God will drive the clouds away and we will feel his warmth again. God is with me even when I hurt or when I grieve and feel alone.
Perhaps you have felt the same way today? Maybe that feeling is with you even as you read these words. If that is the case then I wonder if you can take a step back and notice that God has not given you up. Sure the rains of life came, but so did the promise to never leave and never forsake.
Maybe even on a rainy day, we can find a reason for hope?
Blessings
Rev. Derek
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