When it rains it pours, at least in Lynchburg that's how it seems to be.
It hasn't rained here for the last five weeks and people began to pray for rain because everything was drying up.
I think KNOW God heard the prayers. Funny thing about God, sometimes he answers in small ways and other times he answers in BIG ways. He choose the latter.
Last Wednesday I got out of class a half an hour early which meant I would get to youth group on time for once! I rushed to the front door of DeMoss (the main academic building on campus) only to be bombarded with torrential rain (its been raining ever since). I'm talking the kind that is falling so hard and fast that the streets are flooded within minutes and you can't see in front of you.
Normally I am a big fan of rain storms, especially when there is thunder but not Wednesday. See, when you're carrying a laptop and hundreds of dollars of books it kinda stinks to have to walk to your car in the rain. So I patiently waited. I checked every five minutes or so to see if it had let up. It hadn't. Then I had to remind myself that God promised not to flood the earth again because it sure seemed like that was what was happening.
Well after about a half an hour things were settling down a bit so I rolled up my pants, took my shoes off, and hid my books in my bag as best I could. Then I took off for the parking lot.
I almost got ran over by a car.
I looked a hot mess. (More like a wet dog with make-up running down her face but we'll call it a hot mess!)
And as I approached my car what did my eyes see? Two windows unrolled half way down.
I stopped mid-run and had to start laughing.
It's been in the 90's here for the last week. No sign of rain. Typically I don't leave my windows unrolled but the gram car heats up like an oven if it sits in the sun for too long and since the locks don't work properly I figured if someone was going to steal her (ha, I hardly doubt of all the vehicles in the lot they would choose mine but you never know!?!) they could just open the door so I left the windows unrolled.
Go figure it rained that day.
Not only was I wet but now my car was sopping wet and as I turned the key to the ignition I just had to keep laughing. It's too late to get mad. And well I'm sure looking for the outside in its mildly funny.
I was determined to make it to youth group still so I drove straight there. Twenty minutes later I arrived only to find out power had been knocked out at church so there was no youth group. That was the icing on the cake.
I'm not sure what got a hold of me, well actually I'm pretty sure it's the Lord ever so patiently molding my heart, but instead of lashing out in anger or frustration I was like "thank you Jesus, now I can go home, change out of my wet clothes and do homework!" Just the kinda thing a girl wants to do on a rainy day, cuddle up on her couch with a good book, or textbook in my case. See He knew!
Anyways, later that night I was thinking about the things God has been teaching me these last five weeks and the storm fit perfectly.
These last five weeks have been crazy. It's been a nonstop flow of school work and long clinical hours. Everyone said senior year was much easier but I'm finding that is NOT the case. I keep telling myself to take it one day at the time but in my heart I'm just wishing for December 17th to be here. Add in things on the gram car that keep breaking and a mountain of fees that need to be paid (graduation fees, boards, senior pictures, etc) and I feel like sometimes I'm standing in the middle of a storm. Things are beating down from all sides and its hard to muddle through the rising waters.
Sometimes in life God brings the rain and I feel like we try and rush through it. (You even notice how people run through the rain to get to their destination because they think they'll be dryer? On the contrary if you walk you'll be dryer when you get there. Don't believe me? Google it!) We want to get to the dry "safe" place as quickly as possible. In the end though we just end up getting more wet and being miserable.
Being wet makes you uncomfortable. The rain makes it hard to see what's coming next. And yet the rain brings refreshment and growth. That's the case for me. I feel as though God is asking me to walk through this uncomfortable place of life (trust me two days back to back of being on your feet for 12 hours is not the most comfortable thing). I may not know what is coming next. Most the time I don't. But if I just walk through it with Him I have full faith He will lead me to a dry place.
I have to remind myself this daily but its a truth I cling to.
A verse I was lead to the other day was John 16:33 (NLT) which reads "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you WILL have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."
The context of that verse is that Jesus is talking, rather preparing his disciples for his departure from earth. He is explaining how when they realize that he is Truth and grasp the magnitude of what he was about to do, lay his life down so that we might have eternal life through the Father, then they will have real joy. The kind of joy that only comes from a relationship with Christ.
I was sharing with my boyfriend the other day that too many times we let Satan use life's circumstances to steal our joy. He loves doing that. How many times have I allowed him to do that? Too many and I'd rather not acknowledge how often. Those circumstances, the drops of rain beating down on us, the ones that Jesus is talking about when he says trials and sorrows do not need to be joy stealers. You know why? Because Christ was victorious that day on the cross and He is coming again. This world is only temporary. Too many times I think we, myself included, forget that. Is it easy to get caught up in life's storms? Yes. But God is right there with us. Will you cling to him, regain that joy, and walk through this life with Him? I hope so. I'm learning slowly but surely to.
Ok now I'm going to get completely off subject for a second...at the end of June I talked about putting on my running shoes and waiting for God to bring a man into my life that was running full force after Him. Little did I know that guy was already in my life. You could say I was a little too stubborn or blind to realize it at the time. God worked on my heart and ended up blessing me with a wonderful boyfriend. He would probably be VERY embarrassed if he knew I was doing this but I have to give God all the credit on this one. I admire his passion for the Lord so much. It's actually what first attracted me to him. He pushes me daily to love Christ more and to be more like Christ. We haven't dated that long (some might say we're still in that "honeymoon" period) but its been a wonderful blessing so far. He recently came to visit me at school...here is a picture of us! Meet my Matthew.
