When it Rains... it Pours
Melissa Sharpe
Life is riddled with adversity. Each day is presented with its own challenges and strife. This is a part of the human experience (so we are told) and by the gift of our own freewill, designed to make us stronger and more dependent upon our Creator.
Yes, this is all truth. But have you ever noticed that it never seems to be the big, all-consuming, larger-than-life adversities that unravel us to our core? No? Me either. It seems to be the little, annoyingly meddlesome, under-the-radar hiccups that unravel my commonsense gauge causing an overwhelmed spirit and emotional overload.
Common life occurrences like the car breaking down or a flat tire on my way to an appointment. My daughter losing her glasses when we are already running late. Spilling coffee on my freshly ironed dress. The dog getting into a mud puddle in the backyard and dragging it into the house. The leaky faucet, the raccoon who destroyed last night’s garbage, or the eleventy things I forgot to write down on the family calendar.
So why is it that the little things of our cultural daily life seem to uproot us the most?
Perhaps because those are the very things most shallowly planted.
They are the things that require us to pay attention and keep moving at a pace set by the world that spins around us. They are the things that we believe we have some sense to control. And they are the very things that teach us the vital life lesson of learning to respond instead of reacting to a situation or circumstance.
As the age-old saying goes, “When it rains, it pours.” It simply means that when something challenging happens, other challenges appear to follow. And yes, they do, for life is riddled with challenge. But when the larger-than-life adversities hit home, there is a peace which surpasses all human understanding that shifts the atmosphere to one of heavenly control.
Let us remember the wisdom of the Word of God which we are called to hide within our hearts for times such as these:
Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34
The car can be fixed, the tire repaired. The glasses found, the floors washed clean of mud and mess. And the eleventy things will pass and there will be eleventy more. The worries of the day will always make their appearance at the most inconvenient of moments, and strife a constant companion. But all we have to do is focus on THIS day. Just this random day of all the days. Because there is always blessing to be found within it.
