Devotional 5-6-11

Running Between the Raindrops

With the April we have had, it is not a stretch to have a conversation turn to the weather. People say things like "I may have to build a boat" or "Do you think the floodwall is high enough?" Several times in the last few weeks, as I am leaving a customer's office -- in the rain -- customers will say, or I will say, "If I run between the raindrops, I could stay dry." Pretty near impossible considering what is pouring down.

I ran a quick GOOGLE search for songs and hymns that reference rain. Believe me, there are loads. To name just a few: Come Rain, Let Your Mercy Rain, Rain of Your Mercy, In the Midst of Rain, Rain Down and the Todd Agnew song, Grace Like Rain. Grace Like Rain, hmmm.

In the movie The Presidio, two of the stars are Sean Connery and Jack Warden. The history between their two characters dates back to active combat and a time when Warden saved Connery's life. His heroic actions resulted in the awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor (actually named just Medal of Honor). As the story line unfolds, we discover that Warden is in cahoots with the bad guys. During his attempt to "make things right", he is fatally shot. He's laying there dying, Sean Connery assuring him that everything will be ok, and Warden mutters these words about the Medal of Honor: "I think it was easier to earn it than it was to wear it."

Grace like rain falls down on me. Lyrics from Agnew's song. It pours down all around us, yet for reasons known only to us, the words "I don't deserve it", "I don't like so and so", "I wasn't nice to such and such" run through our minds. We spend a tremendous amount of time and energy trying to get out from under it. Grace is hard to wear. It covers us and makes us different. What will it do to my life if I get some on me? I will be changed. I will be clean. Let's stop running between the raindrops. Let's go get wet.

Steve Matthews