This morning as I sit in the pitch black of my living room, I am greeted by the gentle sounds of thunder and rain pouring down outside.
Right now the rain feels peaceful and comforting. I know it’s lowering the hot summer temperatures a few necessary degrees and giving yards that were aching for water some refreshment. The sound of it is soothing and I can imagine that it’s cleansing the sidewalks of stale chalk drawings and creating fresh, new canvases.
If I let it, however, the rain can also paint quite a different picture for me. Right now I hear the tiny feet of our dogs walking across our floor having just come in from outside. I can imagine that when I get up and turn on the light, I will be greeted with paw prints and a few other “treasures” across my floor – a floor my husband painstakingly cleaned this weekend. And if I open the curtains to the backyard, I’ll see once again that the mud pit is alive and well and growing – keeping my boys and their boundless energy stuck inside one more day.
How easy it is to look at the circumstances of our days in two distinct ways! Right now, in this moment, I can choose how I let this shape my Monday… will I see rain as a blessing or a curse? Will it bring me joy or frustration?
What will I choose? What will you choose?
Sometimes I forget that though I can’t control the weather – I can control my response to it. And when that’s challenging – I can pray for help.
My prayer this morning is that we can look at the circumstances of our day and choose joy. I pray for the grace to find wonder in the moments I am offered and to let that wonder move me towards action – action that brings joy and life to others.
Even as I pray this I feel doubt creep in that this is possible today – but I guess that’s why it’s a prayer. It’s not solely up to me to make it happen.
“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.” – Henri Nouwen
