It is RAINING in So Cal!

Dear Friends,

We so enjoy the rain! We have needed it here in So Cal and we are going to get it...BIG time! Other than any inconvenience or damage that might be done we are really thrilled that the rain is coming! The forecasters tell us we had our first big rain yesterday, that a second storm is coming on us right now (Tue the 19th) but that the really BIG one is coming tomorrow! We'll take all we can get to fulfill the total 12 inches of rain we need this year.

As I reflected on this I thought of some things. First, we really would like to have a "soaking rain" or a rain that comes very gentle like and falls over a period of time without any of the major inconveniences. The rain falls just enough to be absorbed into the ground without causing any damage, without messing up driving patterns, without flooding. The ground drinks it all in at the speed with which the rain falls.

Second, we do wish that the rain, no matter how hard it would fall, would come at night time when our natural pattern of living would find us at home sleeping away. If the timing was right then we wouldn't have to walk in the rain, drive in the rain or work in the rain. Why, we wouldn't even get wet! Let the rain come but let it come at the right time, preferably night time!

Third, we want 12 inches, no more and no less. Too little rain leaves us dry and too much rain leaves us wet. Twelve inches is what we need, what is normal and is the amount that will keep things green but not overly green nor barren and dry. So we set the mark and hope that is all we get!

Finally, we really want the rain, but overall we really do not want it to mess up our schedules or our lives. Getting all wet is no fun. Driving in it with a thousand other cars on a freeway is always a tension builder. If the kids cannot go out and play but they have to stay inside that might drive us nuts. You mean "it's raining and I might need to leave 15 mintues earlier to get to my appointment?" Ah, the inconvenience of rain...we want the rain but we don't want it to mess up our lives in any way, shape or form!

I thought to myself, "is this how I treat the Lord in my own personal relationship with HIM?" I want HIM, I know I need HIM, but do I only want HIM on my terms and do I only want HIM to fit in to who I am and my own personal schedule...because after all "I do have things to do and places to go!" Think about it:

1. "Lord, I want to SOAK in YOU!" Just don't stretch me. Don't jerk me out of my comfort zone. Only give me what I think, or want, to receive. Be gentle with me in what YOU might ask me to do or be!
2. "Lord, only come to me at the right time." You know Lord I am busy right now, don't ask me to do anything out of the ordinary. "Could you just show up in my life on Sunday mornings when I am in church and then sort of leave me alone the rest of the week?" Sunday morning would be the best time to come to me!
3. "Lord, 12 inches...no more and no less." Do I call the shots on the Lord? Do I put the parameters up as to what I want HIM to do and not do in my life? "Don't overwhelm me Lord, with YOUR power or with YOUR grace!"
4. "In other words Lord, please do not mess up my structured life and what I want to do!" I certainly would not want anyone to think I was "over zealous" or anything like that! I have it figured out. If you do what I am asking then I can live a life free of any personal hassles and discomforts!

Well, the rain caused me to think some of these things. I determined that just as I have no control over the rain, I really have no control over what the LORD may want to do in my life, or what the LORD may ask me to do! And so I will take HIM as HE comes...in all of HIS power and in all of HIS glory just like I must take whatever the rain might bring! Personally I am praying for a FLOOD of HIS love and power to overwhelm me and to carry me away into all that HE has in store for me!

Let it rain!

Graydon Jessup

714.488.7922

gjessup@stadia.cc

graydonandjudy.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/graydon.jessup