HasAnyoneSeenTheTractor?

Rain's My Choice

"It hain't no use to grumble and complain;

It's jest as cheap and easy to rejoice--

When God sorts out the weather and sends rain

W'y rain's my choice."

James Whitcomb Riley, Farm Rhymes, 1883

My wife and I absolutely adore used bookstores.  The family owned shops, full of dust and chaos.  Where else can you find something like Farm Rhymes?  I suspect you would search long and hard at the local Barnes and Noble for such a charming little volume.

When I opened the book to a poem called "Wet-Weather Talk," I knew it needed to be on our bulging bookshelf.  When God sends the rain, "W'y rain's my choice."  Simple, profound, true.  And also one of the great struggles for followers of Jesus.

I have been thinking about the whole issue of contentment lately, because I've caught myself on several occasions not making God's rain my choice, so to speak.  If I understand correctly what the Bible has to say about contentment and grumbling, they are polar opposites.  Godly contentment is the mark of a mature believer, and grumbling is the sinful lack of contentment.

I have been a grumbler lately and not real happy about it.

We have our plans, our expectations, our goals, and our desires.  But God wants our contentment more than He wants us to achieve what we think we need.  One of the things I love so much about life on a homestead is that so much is out of my control, and circumstances are always conspiring in the little, daily things to chisel away the grumbling, old man to create something that is hopefully a little more like Jesus.  How many times has a chain saw broken down right when I really needed it to work?  Or rained when I needed it to be dry?  How about the time I was going to paint a storage box, and the back pasture caught fire and burned up instead?

These are little things, really, but they illustrate on a daily basis this most vital truth.

And the people spoke [grumbled] against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food and no wter, and we loathe this miserable food."

Numbers 21:5. 

The Puritan preacher, Thomas Watson, said over 350 years ago that grumblers are rebels, and a rebel is "as one who deals with the devil."  "Satan," he writes, "takes great advantage of our discontent.  He loves to fish in these trouble waters."  The Art of Divine Contentment.

So the question that I have to put to myself is, am I really ready to go beyond just reading about the perseverence of other saints at the same time I am demanding that God arrange things for me precisely the way I want them?  When God sends the rain, will rain be my choice?  God has been sending a little bit of drizzle my way lately, and I have not received it well.  I wonder how I will react if and when He sends a real, Old-Testament-style deluge.

One of the most misused statements in the Bible is, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."  Phil. 4:13.  It has been used to kick off church building programs and convince harried mothers that they really can get their children to six soccer practices and a game every week.  But the verse follows Paul's confession that he has learned contentment in all circumstances--in want and in prosperity.  He then acknowledges that he has attained this contentment through Christ who has strengthened him.  This little verse that has been sort of the cornerstone of me-centered Christianity is actually all about contentment.

So my New Year's resolution is to be a non-grumbler (I suppose that's not good English, but it makes the point).  I don't want to be a rebel, and I don't want Satan fishing in my troubled waters.

Tomorrow, the weather forecast is calling for lots of sun, and that's great because I have a lot to do.  The pasture is badly in need of attention.

But if God sends rain, why rain's my choice.

P.S.  Thanks to the good folks at Fireside Books in Tyler, Texas.  Check them out!

Untitled Comment

{ 10:51, Friday, January 9, 2009 } { Posted by Mureiko }

Wow! It's no wonder I married you. You still stretch my thoughts and call me to a higher standard. I love you! Thank you.

Untitled Comment

{ 10:19, Saturday, January 10, 2009 } { Posted by Anonymous }

Wow. Challenging thoughts. Great words.

D'Ann

Don't know where the tractor is...

{ 11:14, Saturday, January 10, 2009 } { Posted by rstewart8888 }

but think I can hear her startin' up in your words.
Great start on your blog.. be watchin...
Stop on by on a rainy day and cruise through.. you might find a chuckle or two in mine.
I 'member when readin' the |Bible front to back when I was about 19 and stmbling on a verse in the ew estiment that said God takes pleasure in us..never thought of that.. puts a different light on my behavior. Rob s Onrario Canada

LOVE this verse!!

{ 07:47, Sunday, January 11, 2009 } { Posted by takeadeepbreath }

1 Corinthians 10:10-13 (New International Version)

10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.


((Another grossly misused verse is:
Matthew 7:1-2
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. ))

Laura