Rain, I Don't Mind

Yesterday I did something I've never done before. I let rain stop me from driving. Well, more specifically, I allowed a little voice to convince me that I should stop.

I was on my way home from a short road trip and could see the ominous clouds grow on the horizon. They meant business. Between they and I was a travel center. Pull into that truck stop, the voice said. Wait out the rain.

So I did as told. There was an IHOP, so breakfast called as well. Right as a country omelet was placed before me it commenced to pour outside, the proverbial sheets. Most likely flannel, the rain was so heavy. I ate, and knew that I had also avoided a terrible fate, or at least bad trouble.

How could I know that? How do you prove a negative? Nothing bad happened, really by definition. I was safe, fat, and happy watching the rain from my booth.

I knew because the cautionary voice told me. It pays to listen.

The quiet voice may speak the loudest

Lately I have been fighting doubts about various things in my life. Nothing too terribly serious, really, but still, I have found myself worrying more than I should. This is natural enough I suppose as we get older and the monsters in the closet begin appearing again. Whatever the case may be, at times it has been difficult not to fret over the future.

Then I had something of an epiphany last Saturday in Church. I was informed, very calmly and certainly, that the worry was not necessary. Everything will be all right in its time.

It was little more than a quiet voice in my head. Yet I was immediately calmed, and I have found that facing this week has been much more relaxing than I had anticipated.

I do not know what triggered it. The priest, with all due respect, didn't seem to be saying anything particularly noteworthy. But I was sitting there in the pew and I was spoken to and I felt better, just that quickly.

I have always been fond of the verses in, I believe, Exodus (I apologize for not looking them up) where Moses finds God in the quiet whisper rather than the strong wind or powerful storm. I wonder if that's where God really is, talking to us so quietly that we can't always hear Him.

Or perhaps we are too loud to hear Him. Either way, I felt better. Things will be okay, that I know. Whenever worry becomes too close and threatens to smother us, it may just be the best thing to draw a breath, take a step back, and simply listen for that voice. I'm sure it speaks to us all.