THE RAIN ALSO BRINGS BLESSINGS

I was sitting in a wheelchair in the lobby of the hospital, waiting for the taxi to come. My shoulder was still swollen from the operation, and my entire arm was mottled with black and blue marks.

To top it off, it was raining, adding to my dark mood. Great! Rain! I thought. Just what I need!

Then my eyes turned to the plexiglass roof of the lobby entrance where raindrops were falling and collecting into little pools before running off the roof. The words the rains cover it with blessings popped into my mind, and in an instant, that Bible verse reframed my situation.

Those who put their strength in [God] are truly happy […] As they pass through the Baca Valley, they make it a spring of water. Yes, the early rain covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength.— Psalm 84:5–7 CEB

Yes, I had slipped and fallen. Yes, I had broken seven bones in my upper arm. Yes, I now had a metal plate in my arm and two months of physiotherapy in front of me.

I’m going through the Baca

Valley! It’s my time of testing.

The Bible’s Baca Valley was a literal place. It was a narrow, dry valley that the Jews had to travel through to get to Jerusalem to worship in their temple. The Hebrew word “baca” means “weeping,” and “the Baca Valley” has come to mean a difficult and sorrowful time.

What God is saying is that all those who experience sorrow—and who doesn’t?—can find strength through faith. Through keeping our eyes on Him and our hearts fixed on His Word, the Baca Valley becomes a different place. Instead of being a hard, dry valley of weeping and sorrow, He can make it a place of growth and abundance.

Life takes us through times of hardship and sufferings, but with faith in Jesus, these hard times can become steppingstones where we can “go from strength to strength.” We can face these difficulties knowing that the final outcome is bringing us closer to God.

As sojourners in this world, we can find our strength in God, which will enable us to persevere through sorrows and setbacks. The Baca Valley can turn into a spring of blessing through God’s grace empowering us. The honk of the taxi startled me from my reverie. “On my way!” I yelled as I rolled my wheelchair towards the taxi stand with a smile. “I’m going to make it through this!”

How about playing a game where you compete only with yourself and get to do some good in the process? How about the “Game of Hearts”?

Last year, my daughter discovered her breast cancer had returned, and I found my mind becoming mired in depressive and hopeless thoughts night after night. It was a long, cold winter. I no longer found joy or comfort in the things I had loved, like winter’s blanket of white snow. I started hating that snow and the freezing air. How I yearned for some warm rays of sunshine to break through that gloom!

And some sunshine came, in an unexpected way.

I was chatting with a friend and casually mentioned that while on a train I got into talking to somebody, and “how good it felt to focus on someone else.” “That sounds great!” he said. “Let’s make it a game.” So we began writing each other stories of people we’d met and connected with or somehow helped. Besides doing some good, it helped me keep my sanity during a very difficult time in my life, forcing me to look for opportunities and stories

I could share with my friend. Since then, we’ve expanded to playing this game with a group of volunteers on the streets of downtown Rijeka and using it as part of our youth summer camp.

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Here’s a summary of how to play:

• Do small acts of love to anyone, but preferably strangers—people you happen to meet on your way to school, or work, or on a walk somewhere.

• These acts of kindness may or may not involve speaking.

• It can be played anywhere, at any time of day, alone or with another player.

• There aren’t any secret tactics. In fact, it’s best to share your secrets and experiences, even though the idea isn’t to brag about your good deeds.

The goal of this game is to increase awareness of the universal need for love, and to realize that it never runs out; we can give and pass it on to others, and often it gets returned right on the spot. It also demonstrates the importance of little things, what an influence we can have on others without necessarily having to do anything unusual or great.