I am no meteorologist, but I have learned a few things about the weather over the course of my life.  We don’t get much snow in these parts.  We reside geographically behind a mountain range that “protects” us from most of the snow that seems to hit all around us.  So most of those cold fronts slap on the west side of the mountains and get mixed with the warmer sub-tropical air that moves up from the coast making it just warm enough so that usually the only precipitation we see is rain.  Rain, rain, and more rain.  It is raining as I type this now and the temperature is a balmy 39 degrees.  Just warm enough to make sure it is rain and not snow.  Just enough to tick me off.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Rain is of vital importance.  It provides us with much needed water.  It makes things grow.  It washes away decay and keeps the pollen at bay in the spring.  All of these are good things.  But rain is hard.  It makes me feel blue especially when it seems to rain on and on like it has these past couple of weeks.

So the trials of life are kind of like rain.  They are hard to cope with even when we know they are good for us.  Unfortunately rain is good.  And just as unfortunately, trials can be good.  Rain provides our need for water.  Trials provide our need for faith.  Rain provides growth.  Trials are the breeding ground for growth.  Rain cleanses the earth.  Trials can cleanse away the awful baggage some of us have been carrying for years because we are forced to face things we have been avoiding.

God sends rain and I believe God sends trials.  He wants the earth and everything in it (which includes you and me) to be fruitful and multiply.  Yes, rain and trials can both be hard to stomach especially when either of them seem to last forever.  But the rewards we see at the end of the “storm” make it all worthwhile.

On the Journey with You,

Scott