Stop dancing, start watering

​Maybe we spend too much time praying for rain when the answer is a bucket.

If we're growing things: a garden or trees or flowers or a lush green yard - or a life, rain makes things easier.

Until we find ourselves standing around waiting on rain when a bucket is the answer.

Running taught me that. Getting where I want to go often requires me taking a step far more than it benefits from me standing around and waiting.

Running taught me that rain dances rarely change anything as much as taking a next step does.

In the bible 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 can be hard. We experience droughts. But maybe what makes it hard is waiting on the rain. Well don't wait. Grab a bucket. Make your own rain.

Because we know this. Doing nothing will change nothing. We know while we're waiting on the rain to water what we need to grow, that thing we need to grow is dying a little more each day.

So what do 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 the bucket.

Some days the best thing to do - some days the ONLY thing to do if you want to grow - is grab a bucket.

Grab a bucket and start watering. And maybe dance a little while you do. Call it a new kind of rain dance.

One that eliminates the waiting.