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You have been planning for the day, but you wake up that morning to the sounds of raindrops pounding down on your roof. You say, “No!” as your spirit sinks and you say, “Not today!” Rain may have ruined the day for all of us at some time or another, but does it have to?

I have done all kinds of things in the rain, but last week may have been a first. There have been times when I have allowed the weather, especially wet weather, to control what I could or could not do. There have been other times when I simply refused to let it do so. I’ve gone fishing in the rain. In fact, when I was a boy and the rain started, I grabbed my rod-and-reel and headed for the creek. It seemed like the rain made those old catfish hungry. I have gone swimming in the rain many times. I never quite understood why I shouldn’t. It’s not like the rain is going to get me any wetter when I’m already in water. It’s not going to ruin my clothes when I’m wearing a swimsuit! Now, if lightning starts flashing across the sky, that’s a different story. I don’t have any interest in lighting up like a lightbulb!   

I have gone skiing in the rain…on water and snow. If you are going fast, water skiing in the rain doesn’t feel so great on your skin. On one snow-skiing youth retreat we skied in the rain. It had snowed the day before. There was plenty of deep snow on the slopes. It warmed up and during the night the snow turned into rain. Several of our group members asked what we were going to do. I said, “We came to go skiing, so we’re going skiing!” We put on plastic ponchos and had ourselves a blast.

I’ve played all kinds of sports in the rain. Fortunately, the pickleball courts I play on have a roof over them. The sides are open, but unless the wind is blowing, we can play right on. I’ve sat through rainstorms to watch football games. I played golf in the rain.

Until last week, I thought I had done almost everything in the rain, but I have now raked leaves in the rain. Wet leaves don’t move so easily with a blower, but they can be raked. Yes, I had waited until the last day to get up those leaves. We had company coming to our house for a dinner. I thought about getting up the leaves several days earlier, but I thought more would fall and I’d have to do it again. Then, the day before the dinner, it was pouring rain. So, what did I do? I put on my water-resistant wind pants, my duck boots, a rain coat with a hood, and a cap with a bill to keep the raindrops out of my eyes. Hey, if Gene Kelley could sing the rain, I could rake leaves in the rain…and sing while doing so!

I’ve come to believe that we usually do about what we want. If we really want to do something, a few raindrops, or even the cold or snow, can’t hold us back. Rain can give us a usable excuse to not do what we really didn’t want to do anyway. Hey, do you know we actually can go to church even when it’s raining? I’ve done it before and lived to talk about it!  I must admit though, wet leaves are harder to rake than dry ones!