Rain on Your Parade?

One of the key lessons I am learning is to trust God in all life circumstances. I know intellectually it is easy to rationalize why I should trust God. It is fairly clear that I am finite and incapable of changing anything even with my most ardent efforts to be organized and well networked. This last month I have experienced some of the more stressful points ever in my life. I knew that having my dad come and live with us would be both a delight and also a daily challenge. I knew that working with different groups in doing mercy projects that there would be times when something like rain might cancel an event or postpone it to a later date

This last January we had the most rain ever since we have moved to Phoenix 15 years ago. You have to understand that as I worked my way through college and grad school as a concrete guy I didn’t like rain because it meant I couldn’t work. Now I actually like it and enjoy even walking with the wife and dogs while it drizzles. Having said all of this I had a very unusual situation this last month where I had a large group coming to paint 3 houses and experience doing community service work in the hood. The week before the event the rain kept coming everyday and it seemed like all day. My team leaders, who are seasoned veterans, finally conceded with me that it would be a wise thing not to paint on our planned Saturday for the event. We knew that even though our scheduled Saturday might be clear that everything around these houses would be so muddy that it would end up being an overall poor experience. So we decided to wait 3 weeks.

We wait three weeks I get everything prepared and planned out. The weather had been beautiful and dry for a week. The last thing I expected was to get an e-mail from my key leaders saying oh by the way Dave did you know that the forecast on Saturday is for rain. I quickly checked by iphone and then National Weather Service and saw this little cloud with raindrops. How could this be – God don’t you understand that I need to get this finished both for the sake of the group and also for the people who had been promised. I was willing to dive in and do it regardless of the rain factor. We decided to wait to decide until later the Friday before the event. We were out having dinner at my daughter’s home. I decided to not call my team leaders but just text with a simple question – “Is it a go?” I finally got my response – Yes – let’s go for it!

I had already dropped off all of the supplies for what I hoped would be a clear Saturday morning. The large group of volunteers met at Hermoso Park by 7:30. We did the usual nametags, sign in, sign the Bibles and listen to instructions. After our group picture we disperse the group that will go to 5 different houses to paint and do work for at least another 3 hours. As the groups arrived at their homes and started their work it was clear that the clouds were coming and the sky was getting darker and darker. Ouch! God you know that we need to finish these houses before the flood comes. Each of the groups were doing a great job painting and interacting with the different families that we were helping.

I was attempting the impossible with not only painting 4 houses with a possible 5^th house and still wanted to do a handicap ramp for a domestic shelter home that happened to be close to our other homes. I drove a group to my house to do burrito prep before going downtown to feed the homeless. As we drove the drops starting coming and the intensity increased to where I had to put on my wipers.

As I was approaching my house I got the call I soon expected. Dave – you know it is starting to rain. What shall we do? I was almost ready to say keep going don’t stop but as I listened it was clear that we had finished what we had planned to do. So why try to do anything more. Let’s clean up, get organized and then hand out the burritos before doing a special lunch for the larger group that helped out. My anxiety level had initially gotten the better of me but as I stood back and looked I saw that God had worked in some rather amazing ways. We accomplished everything we had talked about and even the icing on the cake – the ramp was also going to be done.

We did a great lunch at a local Mexican Restaurant that was the best culmination. One of my requests to the group was to get me some extra T-Shirts for the paint day. Initially the original group was going to be around 80 instead it turned out to be more like 50 and we were given the extra 30 vs. having to pay for them.

I know I should know better and trust God especially when it rains. I am learning and beginning to see that God has always been trustworthy. I am quick to flake out or get excited for naught. So I will still watch the weather forecast for a project but realize that even when it rains on your parade God can still bring that rainbow that reminds of a promise made long ago that still stands today.