Some days the best thing to do is just that - grab that bucket and start watering.

​While I was running yesterday, I heard a Lori McKenna song - The Rose of Jericho. I'd never heard it before. When I heard the very last line of that song, I had to play it again. And then again.

For the rest of my run, that last lyric played over and over in my head: "You can't always count on rain to water what you need to grow."

When I was young, we had a fairly large yard in the country. My dad liked to fill it with trees. When the summer days got dry, no rain in sight, I had to spend part of my days dragging a hose from tree to tree - watering every one of them.

I wasn't a big fan of those trees. I liked droughts even less.

Most important of all, though - my dad wasn't a fan of waiting on rain to water what he needed to grow.

As that kid, I spent a lot of time hoping for rain. As an adult, I fear too many times I'm still spending a lot of time praying for rain to water what I need to grow.

If you're into growing things, a garden or trees or flowers or a lush green yard, rain makes life a whole lot easier, doesn't it? We can stand at the front door and watch it pour down and bask in the relief of not carrying that water bucket around in the heat.

I think sometimes we're waiting on rain in other areas of our life as well. We've got these spaces in our lives where there is a devastating drought going on and we're waiting for God to come through with the answer.

Well, maybe God is saying quit waiting on the rain.

Running has taught me this lesson well. Not one finish line has ever come without me taking the first step. And not one race where I wasn't actually able to make it to the finish line - there have been a few - has ever stopped me from being able to take the first step toward the next finish line.

Running has taught me that whatever the struggle is in my life, waiting on rain isn't the answer. Sometimes we have to grab that stinking water bucket and start watering what we need to grow.

Whether it's a job situation or a relationship struggle or this person I'm dreaming I can be - whatever the drought is in your life - crossing your fingers and doing rain dances isn't going to end the drought.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, in chapter 11, we find these words:

If the clouds are full of rain,they empty themselves on the earth,and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.He who observes the wind will not sow,and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

Yes, clouds bring rain. Winds blow over trees. But if you stand around watching and waiting for either of those things, nothing in your life is going to change.

Life is hard sometimes because we don't know what the answer is, we don't know what to do to end this drought in our lives. But maybe what makes it hard is our focus on what we don't know?

Because we DO KNOW something for sure. We know doing nothing will change nothing. We know while we're waiting on rain to water what we need to grow, that thing we need to grow is dying a little more each day.

So what something should I do?

I have no idea. All I know is in running, no finish line has ever turned out quite like I imagined. But I got to every one of them the same way. By taking a step toward them. Some days without having any idea how I'd get there, I just took a step.

And then another.

And then another.

There comes a day when you just say I'm tired of watching the clouds, I'm tired of standing around worrying about this wind. To do either is simply standing around watching life pass you by. To do either is to go on avoiding that bucket.

Some days the best thing to do is just that - grab that bucket and start watering.