More Rain

I am most certainly suffering from SAD. Yesterday was great, with the shining sun and the warmer wind. Today is once again supposed to be cloudy, rainy and cold. Like Fredrick the mouse, I'm trying to remember the feel of the sun to get me through the next two days. Our...insert something uncomplimentary... weatherman says this weekend should be sunny and mid-80s. He's only right 50% of the time. In my darkest moments, I plot unhappy things for him.

Kansas didn't used to be this way. I remember when I first moved into my house about 9 years ago, I was out in the mornings in March pulling weeds in 70 degree weather. April was the rainy month and then it rapidly climbed into the 80s and 90s and stayed there until October 31. (See, in Kansas, Halloween is always the first really cold, rainy day of autumn. Why parents haven't figured this out, I don't know. Kids should be wearing Eskimo outfits for Halloween because all those little princesses and ninjas and Harry Potter's get covered up by parkas anyway. Just call the kid an arctic explorer and save yourself 50 bucks.)

I once role-played with a character who was affected by the weather. Turned out she was part-dragon. The GM had to give us a weather report every "morning" so she could decide her mood.

I heard a sermon this weekend about how American Christians are always asking God to make things easier for them (I think it was Chip Ingram). He suggested that's a selfish and ineffective request. Rather, Christians should be praying that God will give them the strength to praise Him through all circumstances.

Ken Hutcherson of Seattle, Washington is a living example. He's a former football player, father of four, outspoken defender of the faith and founder of the free adoption program for Washington state. He's also been suffering from stage four cancer for the last several years. He's on experimental treatments and according to medical science should be dead.

He praises God continuously for allowing him to be a witness to those medical folks during this time. He continues to pastor his church, dressing up every Sunday and preaching a sermon even when he'd rather be retching his guts out from the chemo. When interviewed last year by James Dobson, he could not stop praising God for trusting him with this trial. He is counting it all joy to serve God.

I'm ashamed of my rainy day mood swings when I think about men like Dr. Hutcherson. The shame doesn't really help with the mood swings but it does help me to shut up about it.

Thank you, God, for the rain as well as the sun. Help me to praise you about both.