I’m a girl who loves football, and so I’m also a girl who is
a sucker for football movies. One I
particularly enjoy is “Facing the Giants.”
While I will be the first to admit that the acting left a little to be
desired, the take-aways from the movie have left me thinking every time I’ve
watched it. One of my favorite lessons
from the movie is about preparing the fields for rain. The quote goes like this:
"Grant,
I heard a story about two farmers who desperately needed rain. And both of them
prayed for rain, but only one of them went out and prepared his fields to
receive it. Which one do you think trusted God to send the rain?" Well,
the one prepared his fields for it. Which one are you? Mr. Bridges continued.
"God will send the rain when He's ready. You need to prepare your field to
receive it."
This thought came back to me last week when I was preparing
some lessons for a retreat, and it made me think about what that looked like in
my life. Sometimes I have a hard time
trusting that the “rain” is going to come in my life when I don’t see any signs
of it yet. And I realize I should know
better… I’ve lived in Indiana my entire life, I know that the weather changes
every 15 minutes, and a day that seems bright and beautiful can quickly change
to rain or vise versa. I should know
that God can rain down blessings even when I didn’t see them coming, but I have
to have my heart open to receive those blessings.
For the last several months our family has been praying for
clarity and direction in how and where God wants to use us, but I will admit,
for a long time I wasn’t ready to receive those things. I was terrified of what it might look like, and
so my heart wasn’t very open. I was
praying for rain, but not carrying an umbrella.
Last fall we took (a) to a Trunk or Treat event, and his
candy collecting skills cracked me up. Even
though he had a bag to put his candy and treats in, he was DETERMINED to hold
every one of them in his hands. People
kept trying to give him more candy, but he couldn’t take it because it wouldn’t
fit in his hands, but if we tried to get him to drop it into his bag he would
yell and yell “No! No! I hold it!!”
While it was TOTALLY fine with me that he wasn’t going to end up too
terribly hopped up on sugar, I just kept thinking about how he didn’t even
realize how much he was missing out on by trying to hold on to everything instead
of dropping it into his bag so he could receive even more.
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| Cowboy wouldn't even put down his candy so he could eat dinner. "No! I hold it!" |
When I realized a few months ago that my heart wasn’t healing,
I reached out for some help with the process.
That’s when I discovered that in many ways, I was just like (a) in his
candy collection skills. I wanted so
badly to hold on to just a few things in my hands, that I wasn’t open to
receive new and more abundant blessings that God could have waiting on me. I just wanted to say “I hold it!” but if I would
be brave enough to let it go and drop it in the bag, God could have something
even better waiting for me. It was only
after I started changing my perspective on this, that I could prepare my heart
for rain.
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“So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today- to love
the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul-
then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains,
so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and olive oil.” Deuteronomy 11:
13-14
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