Running in the Rain, Part I

I am sitting down at the computer with wet hair, my exercise clothes are in the washer, my running shoes are upside down in the mudroom, and my jacket and hat are dripping on the porch. Why? I just got back from running in the rain. Most people get caught in the rain. I revel in it. I haven't always been this crazy, though. Jesus had to change my mind.

The first big mental readjustment came while we were up the Amazon River in the little town of Santo Antonio do Iça, Brazil. There was a little mission hospital there, Barry was a medical student, and we were there in search of what God had to say to us about medical missions.We had only been married a year, and I was a bone-lazy, self-centered baby Christian.

The men were going on a trip upriver to visit a couple villages. They would walk down to the river, and the doctor's daughter, Elizabeth, and I were to take their few supplies down by bicycle. Miss Bone-lazy here surprised herself by enjoying the bike ride. It was extremely hot and humid, but the wind was in our faces and we were having fun. Once we stopped at the river side, though, the heat and humidity seemed to press us down into the hot mud. The weight of water in the air seemed hardly less than the weight of dark water in the massive river sliding by the muddy banks below us. We gave the men their supplies and waved them off as their long, flat boat eased away from the shore. I could hardly wait to get back on that bike and into the wind again!

Dripping with sweat, Elizabeth and I mounted our bikes and headed home. We were both thinking of showers. During our brief stop at the landing huge clouds had gathered and now were looming large and black over our heads. We were in for a tropical downpour. I can't remember now who was the first to yell, "Race you home!" but we were both laughing and pedaling as hard as we could when it struck me. I took my feet off the pedals and let my legs hang. "What are we doing?" I asked. "We are trying to outrun the rain so we can go home and take a shower??" We ended up going as slowly as we could, hoping the rain would overtake us. It did. I still remember it as one of the most delicious things I've ever felt. Wonderful, wonderful rain! I've never looked at rain in quite the same way since.

So this morning, while my eyes were still closed and my ears were just recognizing the sound of rain, I immediately jumped up with the full realization of how wonderful a run in the rain would be, right? Uh... no. While I no longer belong to the "bone-lazy" category, thanks be to God alone, Miss Bone-lazy still rears her ugly head in my flesh. My flesh was trained for years to be bone-lazy. And while God has transformed me by changing my mind, I still have skirmishes with her way of thinking. It went something like this this morning:

"Oh, it's raining. How nice... Mmm, and it's Monday, I'm supposed to run."
"Well, I didn't sleep well, it would probably be wiser to rest. And all my gear will get wet. It takes a long time to dry out running shoes. Maybe I could do some other exercise inside later..."
"But one of the reasons I exercise is because it helps my sleep. I always end up wishing I had done it when I skip. 'Later' never comes, and I hate that feeling of regret."
"Maybe I should just sleep in a little longer, then go."
"But it's a privilege to be able to go out and run at all. Remember that awful C. difficile infection in the spring, I sometimes wondered if I'd ever get to run again."
"My back could get worse if I got chilled."
"I'll wear my jacket."
"Everything will get wet."
"It'll dry. Besides, what a glorious rain. Just what we prayed for! How good it must feel to the plants and wildlife, which were languishing in drought just last week."
"I just don't feel like it, though, I'm so tired."
"Who cares what I feel like right now? I am healed, and we are blessed with a delicious, deep-soaking rain. How wonderful, what a sublimely thankful act, what a privilege, to run in the rain! Thank you, thank you, Heavenly Father!!!"

With that thought, I was standing on higher ground with the flesh left far behind. Oh how I enjoyed that run in the rain!

As I ran, it occurred to me that in a way I have been "running in the rain" for a long time. When I came to God years ago, there was so much I needed to learn, so much of me that needed to change. Through the blood of Christ I was a new creature, and as is natural with new life, I was hungry, hungry for the word of God. Wonder of wonders, it satisfied! My Father had given me a craving for the very thing I needed: Himself through His Word. I had found the chief catalyst of our transformation, His vehicle for changing my mind.

God has many names to describe His Word; one of them is water. Jesus sanctifies his bride, the church, "by the washing of water by the Word." (Ephesians 5:25) For thirty years I've been washed and renewed over and over again. For thirty years I've been running in the rain! Even so, my prayer is still for more growth in Him, "Lord, change my mind, please."

Knowing the Word for the delightful, life-giving, renewing thing that it is, I daily jump out of bed and dive into it for an hour or two, right? Would you believe I have the same silly conversation with my flesh described above on a regular basis in this area too? I need more sleep. I'm already behind with the day, I'll do it later. I just don't feel like it. I won't be able to concentrate anyway. My heart's not in it so it would be hypocritical to just read it because I think I should. Blah, blah, blah.


Who cares what I feel like? I am whole and alive because of this Word. It is Truth. It is Jesus, Logos, whose name is the Word of God. How wonderful, what a privilege, what a discipline of freedom and joy, to feed on the Word! Thank you, Heavenly Father!!!!

Yee-haa! Let's go get wet!

Next, in "Running in the Rain, Part II," the effects of running in the rain...

Wild Flowers and Worldly Thinking

Some of my favorite wild flowers are less abundant on the farm this year than last year. Next year they will be sparser still as the job they were designed to do nears fulfillment. They are tireless and ubiquitous little plants, and I'll bet you're wondering what in the world they have to do with "being transformed by the renewing of your mind."

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.   Romans 12:2

Almost every time I see one of these little beauties, I am reminded of worldly thinking. Worldly thinking comes so easily to us that we rarely see it for what it is. Millions of people hate this little flower and spend thousands of dollars and thousands of man hours to eradicate it. Why? It is a valuable part of any landscape. It is one of the earliest, most reliable sources of spring nectar and pollen for honeybees and other pollinators. It only grows in soil that is depleted of calcium, and its function is to send a taproot deep into the subsoil and bring calcium up to the surface. As its leaves die, their calcium is released into the soil, enriching it and nourishing surrounding plants. Over time the soil becomes rich in calcium, and these wildflowers will no longer grow there. Later, as the soil's calcium is consumed by other plants, the windblown seeds will find that area a suitable spot to sprout and start the cycle again.

What could be bad about such a plant? It has simply run afoul of the world. 


English estates set the tone in the 17th century for a standard symbol of wealth and status - a closely grazed or hand-cut lawn. Attempts were made to copy these elegant lawns in the United States, but English grass didn't do well here, and we didn't have the same damp climate. Not to worry. Golf did make the migration across the ocean, and by the early 1900's one thousand golf clubs began funding USDA research for grass seed that would yield an immaculate lawn. It didn't take long for turf to become a major industry. The American Garden Club joined in the push to create a market by starting a campaign through contests for the best looking yards according to the golf club standard: "a plot with a single type of grass with no intruding weeds, kept mown at a height of an inch and a half, uniformly green and neatly edged." Now the old English lawn was on it's way to being viewed as an American civic duty. American yards that had been packed dirt and cottage gardens with a variety of beautiful, useful and edible plants, with grass only used where it could serviceably reduce mud or dust, were now required by social consensus to transition to monoculture, labor intensive, sterile lawns.

The consequences? An acre of lawn costs more to maintain than crops of corn, rice or sugarcane, and yields nothing. Massive expenditures, $30 million dollars a year in the U.S., fund the pesticides, herbicides, fuel, etc. required. Pesticides and herbicides are a serious health risk for anyone, and especially those with suppressed immune function, but we must have that perfect lawn! Irrigation? 200 gallons of water per person, per day. Gas? 800 million gallons of it are sucked up by American lawns each year. And my wildflower? Well, when lawns became the standard, many valuable plants became relegated to the category "weed,"wildflowers included.

How are you feeling about lawns right now? Maybe you're looking at them in a new light. Then again, maybe you're digging in your mental heels and saying, "But I LIKE a nice lawn. It expresses neatness and order and responsibility!" Maybe a shabby lawn is tantamount to anarchy as far as you are concerned.

I'm not asking you to give up your lawn (though giving less of your property over to it, increasing your plantings of more valuable plants, and going with a mixed lawn are certainly good ideas.) I simply hope to show how easily our thinking is formed by the world without our even realizing it. 


Do we need to rethink EVERYTHING? I believe we do. I believe that God commands it in His Word.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

We cannot receive all that God has for us until we allow him to change our minds. Our minds tend to be like lawns, clipped, static, and bound by the limits of our culture. Our God stands ready to transform them into vibrant landscapes. 

The next time you see a dandelion in your yard, I hope you'll see it a little differently than most Americans. A common yellow flower that renews the soil just might help us renew our minds. 


Oh, and if you're imprisoned in a neighborhood that has made outlaws of these small, very beneficial flowers, please don't reach for the poison. You don't even have to suffer through laborious digging (getting that specially designed taproot is a tough job!) Simply sprinkle your lawn with a dusting of gypsum. That will raise the calcium levels of the soil, and our friends won't grow there. Then you can come to the farm and blow dandelion clocks, guilt-free, to your heart's content.

I gleaned the information on the history of lawns from "Edible Estate" an article by Susan M. Osborn, Ph.D., M.S.W. in Countryside magazine, Vol. 93, No. 3, May/June 2009


Photo by Abie White