Called On Account Of Rain Just In Time

Have you ever needed a rainy day?

If you’re a rancher or a farmer, your answer is “yes, and we could use more of ’em.”  True, but that’s not the kind of need I’m talking about. I’m talking about needing to have your plans for the day postponed due to rain (or some other factor).

My plan for today entailed helping my family brand a few calves.  Branding days are fun, manly days that I genuinely enjoy.  Branding days test your strength, endurance, and your humor… and they always include an over-the-top home-cooked meal at lunch that leaves you way to bloated to do any real work in the afternoon.  Our family does four or five of these branding days at the end of every spring.  Today was a wet, drizzly day from start to finish.  Rain keeps the calves’ hair wet and the branding irons too cool to do their job, so I got the early morning phone call letting me know that branding had been postponed to later in the week.

As it turns out, my soul needed the rain delay today more than my machismo needed the branding day.  I’ve been running hard, trying to get things done.  None of the directions I’ve been running in have been bad directions at all, I just needed a breather… a day to catch up… a day to be.

Our lives happen so fast.  For those of us with kids, they grow up fast.  For those of us with jobs, things change fast and we have to keep up with those changes or else.  For those of us with male patter baldness, our hairlines recede fast.

Take a rain day to breathe.  Enjoy your kids just as they are today. Enjoy the hair that you have today.

Really, take a slow walk and see what God has created for you to appreciate and enjoy today. You’ll like what you find.

Playing the Waiting Game

Jodi and I are waiting in Evergreen.

We’re waiting for our third baby, which should arrive in about a week.  If the ultrasound pictures are accurate, it should be our third boy in 4 years.  Living in Branson where boys can be boys is exciting.  Thinking about how to train our boys on when and how to “man up” is exhilarating.  The faith exercise deepens as we look at the monthly math of finances and remember that (1) God has always provided and (2) that God is bigger than math.  The thought of getting beat-down by 3 little Jedis in our lightsaber battles makes me grin.  The waiting is the hard part.  There really is nothing I can do to speed up the baby arrival time… which is strangely similar to the second thing we’re waiting on.

We’re waiting for direction and insight into the best way to minister in Branson.  Small town ministry is very different than ministry in larger towns.  In a small town, you know everyone and everyone knows you.  Jodi and I see this as a positive; we desire to live transparent lives and we want people to know what makes us tick.  We’re finding that many people in our little community want more privacy in their lives than we want in ours.   Some of that is healthy.  When everyone knows (almost) everything you do, there’s comfort in having part of your personal life that’s private.  As I study what the Bible says about Christians living in community, transparency is key to how it’s supposed to work.  Getting people to open up to God and to each other is proving to be a very slow, prayerful process.  I’m learning that pace is okay.  Maybe God wants to work in peoples’ lives at his pace, not at our microwave-western-give-it-to-me-5-minutes-ago pace.

What are you waiting on?