It Is Raining Again And That Is That

You looked out of the window and the decision was made before you thought about it.

That is what I want to start with, because it is the actual mechanism. You did not weigh anything. You did not ask how hard it was raining, or how long you were going out for, or whether it mattered. You saw water on the glass and the going out was canceled, and it took about a second and it did not feel like a decision at all.

And it has been that way for a while now. Somebody counted the days you got out last month and it was fewer than you would have guessed, and the reason was mostly weather, and none of those cancellations were considered.

So let me ask a plain question and I would like a real answer.

What actually happens to you if you get wet?

Not what would happen on a mountain, and not what would happen if you were out for six hours. What happens to a family who walks around their own streets for ten minutes in the rain and then comes home?

You get damp. You come in. Things go over a radiator or a door. Somebody has wet hair for half an hour.

That is the whole of it. That is the entire consequence, and you have been treating it as a reason not to leave the house for a fortnight.

He that regardeth the clouds shall not reap

There is a line in Ecclesiastes about a farmer watching the sky, and it is almost comically direct about this.

He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. (Ecclesiastes 11:4, King James Version)

He that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.

Regardeth means gives weight to. Consults. Lets it decide.

And this is not a man being told to work in dangerous conditions. Nobody in that verse is being asked to be reckless with anything. The point is quieter and sharper than that: if the sky gets a vote on every decision, nothing happens all year, because there is always something in the sky.

That is the mechanism named exactly. Not laziness. Not fear. A person who has handed the decision to the weather, and who is now living inside whatever the weather happens to be doing.

And there is a whole season on the other side of that sentence that does not get planted, and nobody notices it going, because each individual cancellation was completely reasonable.

You are able to decide independently of the sky, and it has never once been reckless to walk your own street in the rain. Ecclesiastes 11:4 names the consulting of the clouds as the thing that costs the harvest, and the Holy Spirit is the one who takes a vote away from the weather.

Wet is not a problem, it is a temperature

Here is the practical shift, and it is small.

You are treating rain as a category of day. Rainy day, therefore indoor day. That is a filing system you inherited and it is not accurate.

Rain is a temperature and a wetness. That is all it is on a street. It is not a danger, it does not need equipment, and it does not need anybody to be brave about it. A ten minute walk in ordinary rain is a slightly colder, slightly wetter walk. Nothing else about it is different.

And children, mostly, do not mind. That is worth saying because you may have forgotten it. Adults mind, because adults have to deal with the coats afterwards and adults have opinions about hair. Small children usually think puddles are the point of the outdoors and the rain is what makes them.

So the thing standing between your family and a wet ten minutes is not the rain. It is the twelve minutes at the door from the first article, plus the coats to hang up afterwards, and both of those are real and neither of those is weather.

You are able to go out in the rain without anything being required of you, and it has never once needed courage or equipment. The written word puts the loss in the regarding of the clouds rather than in the weather itself, and the Spirit of God is the one who lets a family out into an ordinary wet afternoon.

Ten minutes, in whatever it is doing right now

So here is the assignment and I want it done today rather than when it improves.

Go out for ten minutes in whatever the weather is doing right now.

Not when it clears. Not tomorrow, which is forecast to be better. Now, in the actual conditions outside your actual window, for ten minutes, on your own street.

Ten minutes is chosen deliberately. It is short enough that nobody can reasonably argue it is a hardship, and long enough to prove the point, which is that you went out in the rain and then came home and it cost you almost nothing.

Come back, hang the wet things somewhere, and have something hot. The hanging up and the something hot are part of it. That is the whole ritual and it is not an inconvenience, it is what makes a wet walk a good memory instead of an ordeal.

Ecclesiastes 11:4 says he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap, and the Holy Spirit is the one who is present with a family stepping out into weather they would normally have refused.

You are able to go now rather than when it improves, and it has never once needed to be a nice day to be worth ten minutes. Ecclesiastes 11:4 puts the season lost in the watching, and the Spirit of God is the one who is out there in the rain with you.