October 6 - “Rain”

We are in Mansfield.  Today we were supposed to head home.  Get Mom to Stan’s house.  Get the dogs to Kel’s house.  Get back to work on our house.  But Josh started in on us last night.  “You need to rest.  You need to stay away for a few days.”  Chris has been sick – she insists it’s just allergies.  We haven’t been to Pancho’s yet.  The local Christian book store is having a book sale (Hmm.  I did lose most of my books to the flood).  But wait.  We heard it’s going to rain in Galveston.  What about the stuff we had sitting out to dry at Stan’s house?

Now this rain thing was a really big deal for Chris.  Before we left town we moved furniture under the deck at the house, so she had already established that it was important to her.  I have to admit that it was very difficult for me to join with her in her concern.  See, in my mind the whole worry-about-the-rain thing was pretty silly.  Every bit of that stuff had just been through a flood, right?  What’s the point in worrying about a little rain?  It would even be clean water this time!  But, being the good husband that I am, I kept my mouth shut and moved furniture.

So back to the worry at hand.  The final argument against staying in Mansfield one more day – against our day of rest – was our stuff at Stan’s exposed to the evils of the coming rain.  And then, Nathan called.  He and April had decided to take a few days off working on their house and go visit her Dad in Corpus Christi.  Nathan wanted to know if there was anything they could do for us before they left Galveston.  Final argument answered.  They would move everything to safety for us.  We were free to stay.  Free to rest.  Pancho’s, here we come!  Book sale.  Playing with Zakary.  No smell of mold and decay.  Nice.

The tug of the urgent vs. the need for rest.  I knew we needed the rest physically and emotionally.  Josh had more than once pointed out that we were commanded to rest, so it was a spiritual issue as well.  We were being disobedient in one of those “little ways” that can get away from you and become “big ways.”  What is your “final argument” right now that’s keeping you from becoming a fully obedient child of God?  Whatever it is, it’s pretty silly in the grand scheme of things.  Exodus 20:8-10 says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.”

Father, forgive me for being disobedient.  Help me pay attention to the little things so they don’t grow to become … well, big.  Amen.