Messy People and Trusting God for Rain

There tends to be this perception that when you elect to go into ministry, they give you a shot (similar to the cootie shot), and you become perfect. Lies. No amount of circles, squares or polka-dots make the cootie shot or the perfection shot effective. I still have the same weaknesses, doubts and fears. And I've been learning, slowly, over the past few weeks, the truth of a phrase a pastor shared with me many years ago: "Cheer up! You're much worse than you think you are. But, cheer up! God is so much bigger and better than you think he is."

I think, in all of us, there is a tendency to not want people to see our junk. We like putting on the façade that we're perfect. We have this misguided perception that our imperfection is abnormal. So let me dispel a myth: I am not perfect. (Shocker, I know.) Further, you are not perfect either. But God has a habit of using broken people for his glory. And, here's the kicker, he is glorified in their weakness, because of their weaknesses, and through their weaknesses, not in spite of them. 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells us, "But he (the Lord) said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that God's power may rest upon me." Check out the Biblical line-up of heroes that God used: Abraham (gave his wife away twice), David (adulterer and murderer), Moses (murderer, ran away from conflict, afraid to speak), etc. etc. Imagine if they lived today… you think people are disturbed by Thomas Jefferson's illegitimate children; imagine what they would think of President-King David, and First-Lady Bathsheba. Yet, God did amazing things through these leaders, through their weakness and strengths…

Why does God use weak people? (1) Because there is no such thing as a non-weak person, and (2) because in recognition of our weaknesses, we recognize his strength, and all the glory goes where it's supposed to go. In the same way, I have great hopes that God has incredible plans for us, as his broken people.

Wednesday morning, I awoke to one of the most beautiful sounds that I have heard in the last two months: the soft and steady pelt of rain! For over a month now, the majority of North Carolina has been without rain. We are in a state of "exceptional" drought, and just this week, my county voted to go to stage two water restrictions. Our reservoirs are at half-capacity: we've been hearing dates for when drinking water will run out, if the drought continues. Some of the men and women in InterVarsity have decided to stop shaving, in a conservation effort to lower water usage. The lack of rain is quite literally making things a little hairy. Lord, have mercy; please pray for rain!

There are many things we can and should do to conserve water (including cutting shower time in half with the shaving thing), yet, try as we might, we cannot make it rain. God alone sends the rain. In the same way, God alone is in charge of the work that he is doing through us. We are merely the vessels. And just like we have a responsibility to be careful with our water usage, we also are called to be obedient to him, walking in his ways, and striving to imitate him. But, at the end of the day, he's the one that makes it rain. "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It does not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."(Isaiah 55:10-11) We play our part; but let's let him be God, ok? Even if that means acknowledging that we are weak, and letting him use our weaknesses for his glory…