When I Think About Rain, I Think About Singing

It was one of my favorite country songs back in 8th grade. "Why does the color of my coffee match your eyes?" My friends and I used to bound through parking lots and shout those lyrics out the windows of big ugly 15 passenger vans. "Why do I see you when a stranger passes by?" Each word was accompanied by some dramatic or theatrical gesture or movement. "When it's raining, you won't find me complainin' cause..." Time to break out in three part harmony… "When I think about rain, I think about singing!"

Now, don't get me wrong, I can still tolerate country music on some level. It just doesn't infiltrate every inch of my musical database like it used to. I still occasionally have to satisfy the urge to break out with some corrupted twang version of Chicks Dig It... or other such nonsense.

But as much as I could spend the next 7.45 minutes talking about country music, that's not what initially brought about this spontaneous compulsion to write. It's raining outside right now. No, actually, a more accurate description of the weather would be the first rinse cycle of a dishwasher. You know, when all the food is still stubbornly clinging to its home on the previously white dinner plate? The first rinse cycle attempts to discipline that food by beating the tar out of it. That's how the weather is today.

Yet on this ever gloomiest of days, I still feel like singing. And no, I'm not singing about my prince charming like in the country song, (because I haven't found him yet :p). I feel like singing, because regardless of the circumstances surrounding me, I possess a fail-proof security. How awesome is that? And I didn't even have to hire body guards!

I'd be the first to admit that in many ways, I'm scared of the future. Terrified about what this first year of college will bring along with it. Frightened that I might make poor decisions when given the power to make them without the aid of my parents. Worried about even stupid stuff, like getting an overbearing roommate, or an evil professor, or even being attacked by Chuck's salad bar... (Okay, not really the last one...)

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 46:1, which says "God is my refuge and strength, an ever present help in time of trouble. So I will not fear though the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea." What kind of mad hope is that?! I look at all the little things that worry me. All the situations, people, and objects that act like the literal first rinse cycle pounding away at my life. It all looks somewhat scary and uncertain.

Then I look at my God.




Sorry Mr. Dishwasher. I think you've been beat. Big time. More like mega-ultra-super-monstrous-insanely huge that I can't describe big time. This is why on days like today, I can't help but grin. God is faithful. Count on it. Always. And go sing... even if it's raining.