Grab an Umbrella and Go!

"Into each life some rain must fall." Heard that before? It's from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It's poetic, but dreary. I always hear that phrase with a tone of reluctant acknowledgement. Gotta accept it - the rain is going to come.  

It's not about the rain, really. It's more about what we do when it rains. Some people believe attitude isn't that important. Mark my word, these are usually the people who share their consistently bad attitude. They can show you why something is horrible, who made it horrible and how unlikely it is to ever be anything but horrible. Having a good attitude takes work. It's infinitely easier in the moment to go with the disappointment and lean into the steady beat of the rain pounding against your plans. You know it's true. It's easier to complain about it than to struggle against it, but it's not the best thing to do. 

"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." GK Chesterton

It takes intentional effort to LOOK for the possibilities that the rain creates. It takes work to figure out how to make something work, maybe even better, during a downpour. This means that the energy we would spend on our frustration with the rain has to be redirected into problem solving around the rain!

I've got a couple great examples for you. Our church planned a big outdoor Christmas community event for last weekend, but the rain (not Santa) was coming to town. The team that worked on this event didn't cancel, they got the word out and created an amazing alternative event indoors that, upon reflection, might have been better than the original plan! We can't move into that kind of creativity if we're focused on the rain.

"Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains."   Henry Ward Beecher

Here's another example. Earlier this year, in September, our daughter got married. Hence, I chose the photo above. The wedding was in a church, and the reception was in a barn, and it rained all day. I mean it rained and rained some more! Guess what? The pictures were incredible - soft light, umbrellas and a gutsy photographer who didn't see the rain. She only saw the opportunities for unique and beautiful memories.

Where are the clouds forming for your team? And more importantly, where will you put your energy? The truth is that the rain will come, and the rain will go. Don't let a little rain stop you from creating something incredible.  

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