Just 3 inches

So, yesterday it rained.  It rained hard and fast.  It rained a lot in a very short period of time.  Seriously, I think the most recent report I heard was nearly 3 inches of rain in an hour.  Three inches doesn't sound like much, but when we typically don’t get 3 inches of rain in an entire summer month around here..... we begin to focus the lens a bit.  

Three inches isn't unmanageable, but 3 inches in less than 2 hours, and we adjust the focus a bit more, the picture becoming sharper.  

It was only 3 inches.  But the damage left in the wake of those three inches was mind bending, honestly. And the picture is crystal clear and it is devastating. 

Roads usually easily passable, left essentially erased.  The 30 minute journey home stretched to an agonizing double hour trip.  Paths rarely traveled, forced to bear the brunt of unexpected detouring motorists.  Lanes which would never be purposefully followed to get home, became major thoroughfares. 

Virtually unnoticed streams and creeks, which usually babble gently and clearly downhill on their journey toward larger rivers, now massive and undeniably present.  The boundaries between the banks and the land they had carved out were indistinct. 

Three inches, transformed in changed landscape, changed plans, changed lives. 

It is hard to wrap your mind around the massive power which left such destruction in its wake, and it’s all because of three inches of rain.  As I drove through the flats today, which less than 12 hours earlier were under water, I could see the path of devastation.  The grass along the edge of the creek was flattened down, in a strange pattern from the force of the rushing water pushing it flat against the ground, and keeping it there for a long period of time.  A garage pushed from its base and tipped over, much like a child who has his feet kicked out from underneath him.  Tires picked up and thrown in to the current abandoned in the middle of an unfamiliar field.  Sticks and twigs speared through fencing.  A Christmas ornament precariously dangles off of the top railing of the bridge.  It is an odd sight, some things obviously destroyed; others, not so obvious,  but definitely not as it was before the rain started. 

As I surveyed the landscape, I was brought up short by this thought…

 "Sin has the same effect on our lives as this storm had on this land."

And as I tried to dismiss the thought as over analytically or zealous, it became as clear as the sight before me. 

Just three inches of rain.  How many times have we heard the justification of “just 3 inches?”   The tempest swirls above our heads and the temptation is great.  The first compromise falls and the justification begins with the first, the second and third follow rapidly on the heels of the first.  And the drain of repentance is closed.  And circumstances rush beyond our control, and the damage floats in every drop that surrounds and floods us.  Once we realize what is happening, and we pull the plug out of repentance, the waters begin to subside.  The waters recede and we breathe deeply a sigh of relief with the ending of the chaos.  And, often we convince ourselves into thinking the worst is over. 

But is it?  Is the current storm of sin really the worst we endure?

I think the aftermath we have yet to face is even more troublesome than the storm itself. 

Just like the clean-up my neighbors are dealing with following the 3 inches of rain yesterday, I have other friends who are dealing with the aftermath of a tempest of sin which has altered the landscape of their lives and the lives of countless people around them. 

The storm is over, and everyone is grateful for repentance which has allowed the flood to subside, but their lives are forever changed, and now begins the hard work of restoration.  This is the time when, while everyone is dealing with the issues this flood has caused in their own lives, 

people are still willing to step out and help the neighbors, 

those who have been hit the hardest, 

those who need help the most. 

And even when life seems to have been reestablished, 

and the storm is nothing but a bad dream, 

and we are rested from the work, 

and we have found our new normal, 

We should not be surprised when we find a puddle remaining that we missed during clean up.  And we revisit the hurt, and forgive again, and continue to clean up our hearts.  

But we cannot go on without preparing ourselves to avoid such devastation in the future.  While we cannot avoid all the circumstances that come our way, we can prepare for and avoid the tempests created when we step away from the nature of God and refuse to allow “just 3 inches” to flood our lives. 

Staying covered in the dust of the Rabbi in order to avoid the flood~

Christy