The weekend forecast is rainy with a chance of deluge. That’s a bummer for the people with hearts set on golf or a trip to the lake, and worst for the outdoor wedding plans. I get it: we much prefer our rain on Mondays and our sunshine on Saturdays, but given the rainfall totals so far this year we can’t complain too loudly about some April showers to feed our May flowers.
I lived through a brutal drought in south Texas that stretched over several years and drastically lowered lake levels, led to wild fires that destroyed businesses and homes, and created deeply problematic water shortages. It wasn’t pretty. Year after year of bans on watering lawns and plants – with warning signs posted that invited homeowners to remember ‘Brown is a Color Too!’- made for some depressing landscapes. The moon looked more attractive. Rain is life.
This is why Scripture so often compares our souls to the thirsty ground. “My soul thirsts for you; my heart longs for you, as in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water”, sang the Psalmist. Our soul droughts are silent killers, the slow decimation of our interior landscape, the erosion of our spiritual beauty, the burnover of our hearts strengthening its deadly grip on our tightening throats without our notice. The suffocation of the soul can appear to be a distant peril until it is almost too late.
About seven centuries before Christ the Jewish prophet Isaiah suggested that God’s word flowing into our lives was like the a beautiful, life-giving downpour.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
The flourishing of a life and community occurs as hearts and minds of people receive the life-giving effusion of God’s loving truth communicated by his own words. Without that flow of life, love, and truth, the parched soul dries up in the arid atmosphere of anxiety, doubt, and pain: life is hard; questions abound; doubts persist.
Franklin is rooted in the deep reality of dependence on and love for Scripture as much as it is in the “Americana” our city’s web presence announces. One thing a newcomer might notice is that at 7 am in any given coffee shop in the city there’s a Bible Study group meeting to read and discuss the Scriptures. In case you missed this fact, that’s not the case everywhere.
That said, the notion that a Bible alone approach to life is adequate just won’t do – and that’s something Scripture teaches. The Holy Spirit’s presence with the Scriptures is essential too. Afterall, we’ve all encountered Scripture-toting and quoting hard-heartedness, an ugly self-righteous certainty that looks a lot more like a rigidly critical spirit than the wide embrace of Jesus. The Spirit cultivates love for people rather than dismissive anger. That’s why Isaiah also compared the Holy Spirit to the falling rain: ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants” (Isaiah 44).
Truth without love creates a hardness of soul that drives away the opportunity for joyful relationships. Love without truth ruins the possibility of lasting authentic relationships. We need both.
So while it’s raining this weekend take a few quiet minutes with David and the Psalms, or with Jesus in the Gospels; spend some time with Paul in one his letters, or Isaiah in one of his prophecies; set aside a moment to listen, to let the gentle rains of God’s Spirit and Truth soften and shape your soul, and bring to your heart the nourishment you need. Thank God for the rain.
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