Bring the Rain

I love rainy days. As I thought about this today, the Mercy Me song, "Bring the Rain," came to mind. The opening line of this song has stuck with me a lot. It is not something I do well, but something I strive for.

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You
with all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You

Even though I handle rough water pretty well, I do tend to go through a crisis of faith every time the rain comes. This has really bothered me over the years. On one side of it, I can easily attribute it to my logical and literal side that wants to know the facts in every case. For this, I sometimes miss the reason right in front of me for trying to find the bigger purpose. I think it is important to remember that not every event, good or bad, has some transcendent purpose. Some do but if it's not obvious, I probably can't understand or see it anyway.

It always makes me laugh when I realize that God has put a theme in my life that I completely miss. Over and over again, I've been told that worship happens outside the church more than in it. Somehow, I missed or ignored that until now. I want to get better at praising God at every turn. I worked for a long time to achieve the never ceasing prayer, but I think I was missing the point. The truth is that praise is another form of prayer and, in many cases, is more pleasing to God than most of our prayers. Why are we so inclined to cry out as though we are in pain and suffering. Truth is, we are very blessed even in our toughest times. Yet we cry out like lepers. Instead, let's sing out to him in thanksgiving. He has given is his own son and put this entire world in our hands. His only reward is our praise and worship to him.