Richard ate his soup with some difficulty this morning.
Richard had spent last night in a doorway in the city.
He couldn't eat his soup because he was so cold that he was shaking. The soup just flew off the spoon the second he loaded it up.
I asked him where his sleeping bag was?
He told me he had lost it when he was drunk yesterday.
He told me that last night the wind was so bad and that the cold was sickening.
I get so frustrated because I can't get him to go to one of our hostels or even to come home with me or someone else from our Church.
He just won't risk leaving the one place he knows.
The street.
He told me that even though it was so cold last night he had a strange experience around 2am.
He said the rain was driving down to earth with some force. He said that when it hit the pavement he literally saw it bounce back up about a foot. He said at first he thought about finding a different doorway because the rain was seeping in. Then he said that all of a sudden he got strangely fascinated by the rain, He said he was transfixed, just watching it.He described to me how he just had an inexplicable urge to just go and stand out in the heavy rain falling from black skies.So he got up from the doorway, walked to the centre of the narrow Durham Street and said that he closed his eyes and opened his arms and just let the rain drench him.
He told me he just cried.
He didn't know why.
He said maybe my life is so low that somehow I needed to let the rain wash the bad away.
I sat with him listening intently.
My eyes filling with tears.
I was overwhelmed with thankfulness that here I was back at work after Christmas, and realizing what an honour it is to sit with broken.
It was funny really, because as he was was speaking I felt like rain was falling on my own life.
I had the same irresistable urge to stand in the rain.
The rain of the Holy Spirit.
I struggle living in the village I live in. I am a city boy and I long to live and breathe major city life once again.
And lately I have really let it get on top of me.
And I have to get through the next year coping with that.
Yet God reminded me today as I sit with Richard that as long as I retain the desire to be drenched by God I will be OK.
Its when I try to fix things myself that I really struggle.
The presence of God, the mercy of God, and the grace of God is enough for me.
And he showers us from heaven with those things relentlessly.
So much so in spiritual terms it is always raining.
The trouble is that there are times when I run for cover, to get out of the rain.
I don't want to get wet. When what I really need to do is to step into the rain and get drenched!
Whatever you are going through, good times and bad, even those things that come to mind right now? A good thing to remember is? It's always raining.
In fact it's pouring!
Raining God's incessant love over our lives.
So don't resist that urge to step out into the downpour of God's amazing love.
Try not to just run for shelter.
Let the rain wash away the bad, the pain, the unrest, the insecurity, the doubt and the despair.
Don't run away from the rain, run direct into the middle of it.
Close your eyes, open out your arms and let the Holy Spirit drench your life.
His grace will get any of us, through anything, that is a promise!
Richard is warmer now.
He has finished his soup, dried off and had his flask and water bottles filled up.
I have just watched him drift off down the street probably to look for money or alcohol.
And my heart burns.
And my prayer is that this world will realize that its always raining.
I pray people will step out into the rain of God's love and let it drench us.
