Let It Rain

“Let it rain, let it rain,
Let your love rain down on me.”

Creation was cancelled today. Not the Genesis one (though some people that spend their time figuring out when that is going down say it is also imminent), but rather the big Christian festival that happens every year this time in Pennsylvania. Its been raining for the past few days like someone should be building a big ark and there is not much let up in sight so they pulled the plug on the big tent party for this year.

I have to imagine that there are a lot of disappointed people. This was going to be my first trip, but I have heard that Creation is a lot of fun. I have also heard of people getting saved or at least uplifted during the festival. The biggest let down, though, isn’t so much for the individuals, but for the people that organized large groups to go. My sister-in-law, Barb, is one such person. Over the past several months, Barb, has made a pretty significant investment of time and organizational skills to put together a large group from the Philly area to head out to the party. Even more confusing is what to do with all of the food and money that was gathered by the individuals to provide meals and supplies for the week.

I spoke to a couple other people I know in other groups and they are in the same boat. One response is to try and figure out how to equitably distribute the purchased supplies to the people that contributed to the purchase. Another more popular response, so far, seems to be for each of these groups to try to organize something else to do to get together and make use of some of the supplies. At first I thought, I should try to connect some of these groups together, rent a PA, get some other musicians together and have a smaller get together of our own. As soon as I hung up the phone on that idea, though, it hit me that there might actually be a much better party to be had with all this stuff.

Even more than a gathering, wouldn’t it be even more amazing if we instead donated everything that we possibly could that was collected to some food shelters or soup kitchens? I mean think about it for a minute. There were supposed to be close to 100,000 people going to creation this year. I can’t even imagine how much food was going to Mount Union, PA for this week, but I can begin to imagine how blessed it would be for people with next to nothing to receive that food in the name of Jesus. And wouldn’t the effort to make that happen, perhaps a couple phone calls, be not only easier but so much more Christ like than bartering over how to get stuff back to those of us who already have too much stuff?

And then I thought of Craig Borlase, the author who’s latest book, “God's Gravity: The Upside-Down Life of Selfless Faith” was just released. On his blog, Craig wrote of an idea to live on half his food budget for a week. Could you imagine if 100,000 of us did that for a week every quarter and gave the money to help alleviate the suffering of the poor? Can you imagine if 1,000,000 of us did that, or 10,000,000. And just as perplexing, can you figure out how millions of us Christians would find that idea absurd? But isnt that exactly what we are called to do?

Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? – James 2:14-17 MSG

Wouldn’t be amazing if that rain that ruined our party ended up filling empty stomachs, even if just for a few weeks? And wouldn’t it be even more amazing to see the glory that kind of selfless love would bring to our Savior? Wouldn’t it be wild if Craig’s radical but simple idea idea turned into a movement that made a major contribution to the eradication of poverty? Wouldn’t it be cool if there were hundreds of simple little changes we could all make in our lives to make a difference in the name of Jesus? And wouldn’t it be more uplifting than an annual festival to find ways to actually live out the faith we profess. Whew! I think I'm going to give it a try.

I wonder if that is what Clapton was thinking about when he wrote:

Now I know the secret;
there is nothing that I lack.
If I give my love to you,
you'll surely give it back.
Let it rain, let it rain,
Let your love rain down on me.