Standing in the rain

Huw Williams | 21:23, Wednesday 14th November 2012 | Turin, Italy

What makes a person stand out in the rain? I remember a friend when I was in music college who fancied himself in love. Unfortunately his love was unrequited. He played Chopin Ballades by the hour and paced the street outside his Juliet’s house through rainy evenings. He thought he embodied the tortured soul of Liszt, she just thought he was rather scary.

What makes a person stand out in the rain? At the bus stop yesterday morning there was a woman yelling angrily down her mobile phone. Her hair was greying and wild, and she walked with a severe limp. She was wrapping herself around a cigarette as if it were doomsday and although the call came to an end the shouting did not. She cursed the bus for not turning up, she cursed the cigarette for burning out too quickly, she cursed the rain for being wet. Yet she had the bus shelter to herself. The middle aged man with the rucksack, the distinguished looking lady with the expensive looking raincoat, the teenage girl who may well have been a ballerina on her way to rehearsals and yes, the church pastor, all chose to stand out in the rain, for fear of getting close to the woman on the edge.

What makes a person stand out in the rain? Love and fear, it would seem. Love and fear – and these two things can drive us to far more extraordinary exploits than this. But they are not the same thing. As I have preached the varied judgement passages in Amos over the last couple of months, there has been the constant temptation to take the cheap shot, to append whatever frustrations I might have with certain individuals to the application, in an attempt to make fear do its work and change behaviour. But time again the text has been clear, while the message of judgement is real and important to proclaim, God’s appeal is made to our hearts, to our loves and not our fears. If we’re in the business of behaviourism then I guess fear is an effective enough motive to change. If we are serious about heart change, then nothing less than love will do.