Rain, Rain, Go Away

Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny wants to play;

After four days of rain here in Florida, tropical storm Fay continues to linger around. As a kid, I remember saying the above nursery rhyme when the weather was bad and kept me inside. Waking to the sound of rain this morning brought the short chant back to mind.

It's not the rain that bothers me, it's the company it keeps. Torrential down pours accompanied with high wind gust and conditions right for tornadoes isn't exactly conditions conducive for singing in the rain.

When will it stop?

I don't know.

Two different friends with two totally different hardships going on in their lives asked me the same question. "When will it stop?"

I don't know. The torrential down pour in their lives are very real and at this point, no end is in sight.

The little rhyme mentioned earlier has an interesting history. Spain and England were rivals. In 1855, the Spanish attempted to attack England with a larger fleet of ships only to be soundly defeated. The English victory was attributed to the swiftness of their ships and the stormy weather that scattered the Spanish Armada fleets.

The rain actually helped to bring about the victory.

Is it possible for the rain in our lives to bring about victories? Ask, Silas and Peter. They were beaten, jailed, and chained for doing something right. The rains poured down in their lives and they worshiped.

"When will it stop?" They didn't know, but it didn't keep them from worshiping the God they knew to be real.

"Rain, rain go away,
but I will praise Him anyway."

Praising is a choice that cannot be taking away by circumstances.