And yet, and yet…

I really love the rain.

People think that I’m deranged, but there’s no better day in my mind than a cold, dreary, slow rain/misty kind of day. You can keep your sun and your sandy beaches, and even your snowstorms. I like a good monsoon.

It’s enough of a compulsion that many nights when I have my choice of what to watch if everyone else has gone to bed, I pop on rain videos. (Props to my favorite YouTube channel, Relaxing Ambience ASMR: https://www.youtube.com/@RelaxingAmbienceASMR). There’s not much more relaxing to me than a good rain on windows, a book in one hand, a coffee in the other, and a clear schedule.

The irony is that I’ve never lived in a particularly rainy place. Texas (of course) is either dry for years or like buckets dropping deluges and pain on roofs. The only outlier to this was when I lived in deep East Texas in college. We would have days where the rain just kept on, and I loved it. One time I even went to class wearing flip flops, swimming trunks, and a rash guard as I just walked through the rain.

Likewise, though I like the sound of rain on an umbrella, I’m not really a fan of them. I delight in the feeling of rain tapping on my shoulders and hair.

OK, so most of this post has been insane, but I promise it’s going somewhere.

I think what I love about rain is the back and forth of chaos and order. When rain falls, you never know where it will hit. And yet, on a rainy day you can trust that it’ll keep on falling. For those that have a fear of the unknown, this marriage of chaos and order is soothing. We don’t know where it will hit, but we know that it will continue. We cannot control it, but we can enjoy it.

Life with the Holy Spirit feels similar to me. Jesus explained the movement of the Spirit like the wind: you can’t figure out where it’s coming from or where it’s going, but you know it when it’s there. (John 3:8) We do not control the Holy Spirit, but we can be satisfied watching him work. We fail to comprehend how he works, but what bliss when we see him make dead people alive in Christ!

Where the rain descends, life blooms. I always think it’s amazing seeing the desert after a rain, and all the millions of tiny plants and flowers that were waiting for just a splash of the rain. The world thrives on the constancy and unpredictably of the rain. Pouring water into the earth causes a flood; spreading rain drops over the face of the earth grows life.

Maybe what the world around you needs to grow is a little less of your control and a little more faith in the one who gives the rain.

As the rain falls and waters the earth, my heart rises. I’m reminded of the ever exciting order of Christ. I hope that as the rain rolls through in your life, you’ll choose to rest in God’s peace. It’s an opportunity to seek the comfort in the chaos.

And getting your hair wet probably won’t kill ya.

Signs and wonders y’all.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11