We just got a rain shower. I think we got about a half inch of rain. Isn’t it amazing how good rain feels when it is so hot and dry? The rain changed the smell outside. It temporarily cooled everything off, and the main thing is it gave everything water. Without water, everything eventually dies. I know that yesterday I was out watering the plants in the back yard because they were looking stressed. Tonight after the rain I looked out back. Everything looked clean and happy, if plants can look happy. Anyway, the rain did wonders. I could water all day and not have the impact that a good 15-minute shower can have on the plants and grass. I remember the drought we were in for the past few years. Julia and I bought two rain barrels just to catch the rain that ran off the roof of the house to water the plants. I still have them and I used them yesterday to get water to take in front to water those plants.
Summer in Georgia can be so fickle. It can be so hot and dry for days. Then you see a thunderstorm pop up and it can rain for hours. If you are lucky, you will be under that storm and get the rain. If you are unlucky, you can watch it rain literally across the street while your yard never gets a drop. We get used to it, and pray for showers to pop up in our area. We at least want our share, don’t we? Well, yesterday I watched it rain everywhere I was except for my house. So today I was glad to see it rain a little here. Jesus told us that out of our innermost being would flow rivers of living waters. I guess that makes us sort of like a cloud. So we are clouds that float around raining, I know it seems foolish, but bear with me for a moment.
Follow my metaphor. If the world is a dry and thirsty land, what does it need? Water, it needs water just like we do in the summer. People all around you are looking for water to quench their thirst. They are trying everything, alcohol, drugs, sex, and materialism. These are all like little sprinklers. They give momentary relief, but the pain and thirst is still there. What they need is a good heavy rain. But they don’t have anyway to get under a cloud. Sure they could go to church, but to most of them, church is irrelevant. What they need is an experience with the King, but they don’t know Him, or how to get to Him. So what do they do? Where do they go? What hope do they have?
Really, we are their hope. We are the representatives of the King. As we move through life, we are to reflect the King in everything we do. It’s not about knocking on doors or about some program. It’s about living a Kingdom life. A life where love shines through in everything you do. A life where “Can I pray for you?” just rolls off your tongue because you know if you pray things will change. They might not always get instantly healed, but things will change. They will change because you cam into the room as a cloud, and rained down the living waters of life. You gave them hope where there was no hope. You gave them a smile when they needed a smile. When you cam in the atmosphere changed because you are the cloud with water to heal a dry and thirsty land and you do what you do best. You let the rains come.
This is all life in the Kingdom is about. I don’t know why I have such a hard time sometimes doing it. As I write about it, I want to do it more. It is just doing it. It shouldn’t be hard, no It should be fun. So tomorrow, wherever I go, I want to rain. I want to let Jesus just leak out. I don’t have to be religious. I hope I’m not, but I do want to be “Christ like”. That is going to be my prayer. I want to be the cloud that rained down on the dry and thirsty land, wherever that is. It doesn’t sound hard. I’m sure that it will be fun.
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