As we do every year, we traveled to Pennsylvania this weekend for Memorial Day. It was wonderful to see my family and camp with my in-laws, despite the rain.  It rained most of the weekend, in fact, and ended up creating quite a muddy mess by the time we packed up on Monday. Fortunately, we camp in campers, not in tents. We avoided the worst of it because we had places to go to get out of the rain.

It’s apparently been raining a lot in Lancaster, unlike Saint Simons. We saw a statistic while we were there that there have only been eleven days that were sunny or mostly sunny so far this year. This whole year, which is nearly half over. That’s a lot of cloudiness and gray! It’s also abnormal, but it can happen. The grayness of the northeast in the winter is one of the things we don’t miss since we moved further south. 

These spells of cloudiness can indeed happen, to those who live in climates that seem to generate cloud cover, and to those who live in sunny places, as well. The cloudiness isn’t always water vapor in the sky. Sometimes it’s the clouds that overshadow life, clouds that can be generated by misfortune, failure, illness, boredom, aging, depression, and a whole host of things. There are some seasons in life when the hits keep on coming, and it seems the sunny days are few and far between. 

One of the ways to combat this, when you live in a physically cloudy place, is to seek out daylight however you can. Some people invest in light boxes, special lights that produce the spectrum of light found in sunlight. It’s a way of giving your body what it needs. Other people will simply leave and go to a sunnier place. There’s a reason we have so many seasonal folks in these parts during the winter months. 

The spiritual equivalent of such things is in how we seek out the light of God, that light that can drive away clouds and darkness. We often find it in community, in prayer, or in service when we look for it. And we can change our location, too.  We are sometimes able to choose how we interact with the world around us, who we choose to interact with, and where we focus our thoughts and energies.  This is not to say that we can prevent such “cloudy” eras in our lives; indeed, we have no more ability to control them than we do the weather. But there are remedies we might try.  [Please note:  I am not referring specifically to depression, although that may be a part of this experience for some people. Some forms of depression require professional support and guidance to overcome, and if you think that is where you are, I can help you get the help you need.]

The last thing that occurs to me about cloudy times is that God can very much be found in the midst of them. Scripture is full of references to the presence of God described as clouds. Two examples are the cloud that Moses ascends into to meet with God and the cloud that comes over Jesus and his disciples on the mountain at his transfiguration. I don’t think God causes the clouds in our lives, and yet I think we can find God in their midst nonetheless. 

I’m grateful that I live in a sunnier part of the world these days and I am grateful that I have a community, specific people, and opportunities that help me encounter the light of God. I am also grateful that I have clouds from time to time. Clouds often mean rain, and rain often means life and growth. A world without any clouds at all won’t be fully alive either. So, I make the most of the sun when I have it and look for it to return when it is temporarily shadowed. What’s more important is that I remind myself that the sun is always shining, ready to break through the clouds.  Remembering that and knowing that it will eventually shine on me again is helpful.  ...And it helps to live in southeast Georgia too. 

Tom+

…From weariness in continuing struggles, from despondency in failure and disappointment, from overburdened sense of unworthiness, from morbid fancies of imaginary back-slidings: raise us to a lively hope in your mercy and in the power of faith; and from all exaggerated fears and vexations, save us and help us, O Lord.

…Chiefly we pray that we may know you and see you in all your works, always feel your presence near, hear you and know your call: Let your Spirit be our will, your Word our word; and in all our shortcomings and infirmities, may we have sure faith in your mercy.  Save us and help us, O Lord.

From A Litany for Personal Life, Church Publishing