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...