The temperature has finally started warming up a bit in Kansas after one of the coldest winters on record.  I was so excited last Friday when I was at last able to ride my motorcycle to work for a change. These last few days were even warmer and would have been perfect riding weather if not for one problem, the spring rains have returned as well.  Living in the country gives a whole new appreciation to riding in the rain, as the dirt roads become sloppy mud pits that roll on for miles. Needless to say, I’m back in my truck again today.

So often, waiting for the fulfillment of God’s purpose and plan for my life feels like waiting for nice riding weather.  The winter seems to last forever, and just when I think there might be a light at the end of the tunnel, it rains.  Paul was one of those people that seemed to run into a lot more rain than sun during his first century journey with Jesus.  First being avoided and misunderstood as an enemy of the Gospel, just about the time he develops some credibility with the believers, the Jewish religious leaders and the Romans begin their barrages and even assassination attempts. Paul finds himself constantly on the defensive and usually on the run.

He seemed to be considering many of these obstacles as he penned the words of 1 Corinthians 4:2: ‘Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.’  There is this testing of our faith, as James explains, that develops perseverance, a perseverance that eventually leads to a maturity to walk in that trust that was given us. 

It’s really the only way.  It is really only in waiting faithfully and patiently through the winter, and in not loosing heart despite the rains, that we are truly ready to appreciate the trust of a sunny day.

And I noticed something else about the rain.  It’s beautiful in its own way and as I quit dwelling on my disappointment over it, I actually began enjoying it.  The sound, the freshness in the air and even the cold wetness of it offered me, for a moment, a time of resting in the presence of my King.

The sun will shine, we will ride again; but in the meantime, those of us given a trust, a place in this great story, are being proved faithful through the rains.

To the King,

David