4Runners and Rain
- by: Rebekah Crosby 06/18/08
4Runners and Rain
" I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." John 10:10
During the years my vehicle and I have formed a tight relationship. In college I lived in an apartment with two other girls--my car provided a retreat for me. I lived with a family while I nannied. My car was my solace. I lived with my parents...still just me and my car. The colors would change, the styles would change, but the relationship remained unmoved. The past few years my car and I have been at odds. I was too busy to notice the absence of such a long friendship. I took a drive last night along the lake. The windows were down and Jeff Buckley was playing loudly. The forgotten relationship snuggled up to me like my childhood cat Bobo, and for the first time in a long while I felt completely intact.
Natasha Bedingfield sings, "Feel the rain on your skin, no one else can feel it for you; only you can let it in. No one else can speak the words on your lips. Drench yourself in words unspoken, live your life with arms wide open, today is where your book begins--the rest is still unwritten."
Life will suck the breath right out of you if you let it. You'll forget that you love to read and spend your nights doing laundry instead. You'll let your enjoyment of working out slip away and instead will focus on work. Relationships will become work instead of play. And love will start to look more like a business partnership instead of an amorous relationship.
Maybe you'll get so caught up in the business of being a Christian that you forget to lie on your face before God and revel in your Maker.
We become so immersed in the industry of living that we forget to live. You've only got one shot. You can choose today to start living. You can decide in this moment to enjoy what's before you and feel the rain on your skin. Jesus came so that we might have life abundantly. Is your life abundant? Are you full of wonder and joy? Or have you become stale and used up?
Open your eyes to the beauty around you...and inside you. Take five minutes out of your day to simply sit and look at the sky. God is the creator of all good things. He is calling to you. Don't let the assembly line keep you from hearing Him. Allow your fingers to get all pruney with drops from the sky. Release yourself before the Father.
As for me, I've got a date with a 4Runner.
God, please give us the urgency we need to put down our dayplanner and just live. I pray that You would give us the time we need to revel in who You are and who You have created us to be. Thank You for life...for the very breath that we breathe. Thank You that You love us in a way that pushes us to joy.