It has been a frustrating four weeks for me since mailing my hearing aids off to the VA to have the rechargeable batteries replaced. I need hearing aids because I am almost deaf. I had an old, weaker and semi-dysfunctional set of aids so I used them for some relief to tide me over.
In those 28 days I attended important church meetings, met with five cousins in Delaware for a once-a-year get together, went to our regular Bible study (eight to 10 people, and sat through three weeks of Sunday school and church services only partially hearing what was going on. All of those events were in addition to the normal everyday interactions I had with people. Oh how very exasperating those 28 days were.
On the promised day when the hearing aids failed to appear, I reached out to the VA and was assured I would receive the aids in three more days. They did come in the evening after my cousins’ reunion. I did not hear much for 28 days. I totally missed out on one entire church service because the sound system was so low I could not make out a single word.
In the Bible there is a verse that tells us that God makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
We usually think of getting caught in the rain as a negative thing but the sun and rain in this verse were meant to grow good crops so this is a nurturing sun and rain. We are told that both the righteous and the unrighteous receive this nourishment. I can tell you I did not feel nurtured but indeed I felt scorched.
When I look around at my so-called troubles I find they are only overwhelming when I think I am the only one on Earth having those problems. I get myself in a mood that supposes everyone else is getting nurtured – except me. But if I take the time to look then I see how many other people are either having the same or even more difficult problems than I have ever encountered and I realize my thoughts are untrue.
The sun and rain are everywhere – on the faithful people and the unfaithful people. Even if I am feeling scorched I remind myself that God loves me! Perhaps I was getting a holy lesson on patience, which I’ll admit I need more now than ever.
The sunny side of this story is that the hearing aids were refurbished and work much better than they did when I mailed them to the VA.
The day after I received my hearing aids the county sent a crew to put a sign pole in the easement grass in front of our house. The crew did not realize that there might be sprinklers in that area and while using a pole digger they broke the feeder line for our sprinkler system. That brought forth a gusher of water (Might I consider that some rain?).
Now, thankfully, I had my refurbished hearing aids and I could actually have a conversation with the workers to find out what happened. I could make that phone call to the water company to send a repair man out. A day earlier without my hearing aids I could not have made that call. It was so nice to speak to people again and to hear what they said in return that it almost didn’t matter what had occurred.
Truthfully, after thinking about it, I feel very blessed that the crew installed this pole before we had turned off the water for the season because next spring when we turned the sprinklers back on we would have had an awful surprise and then my husband, Neil, would have had to do the repairs.
Because this happened while the water was flowing through the line the county repaired the pipe and made sure the pole and the pipe now did not interfere with each other. It was very beneficial rain indeed. I’m feeling sunny!
When odd things like these happen the question, of course, is why me? But then I think why not me? When I put my life in God’s hands I know I am safe and secure and that nothing will touch me without God’s approval first.
So the cure-all for my ‘me’ problem is to get my eyes off of myself and back onto God and His plan for my life. When I do this it gives me the incentive to walk in the nurturing rain and sun and let them grow me in the way to fulfill my Father’s plan.
ED. NOTE: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.
