Without Sunlight

A couple days ago, I was reading Romans 8 and listening to music at the same time. I don't usually listen to music when I read the Bible but for some reason, I felt like doing so. As I was reading and listening, a lyric in the song stuck out at me: "for now, I'll wait for the sun to shine again. For now, I'll wait for the rain to pass away." I've thought that many times before and I've tried to use that knowledge to get me through difficult times. But I liked the way this was phrased so I wrote it down then went back to reading Romans 8. 

As I was reading, a certain verse impacted me. I've known Romans 8:38-39 about how nothing can separate us from God's love for awhile. I'm sure I had to memorize it for awana more than once. But I've never given the context of this verse the significance it deserves. So this time, I noticed and really thought about Romans 8:35-37:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

'For your sake we face death all day long: we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

All the things in that list are things we can let get in the way of our relationship with God. God's love goes beyond all those things. His love reaches us no matter what. But I don't think that is the point these verses are making. They say we are the conquerors and that we face death for his sake. Despite all we face, we can't let anything separate us from Christ's love. I think that is where we've missed the point - we have a responsibility too. 

Now, back to the song. I thought it was a good lyric at first, but these verses changed my opinion. A relationship goes both ways and our relationship with Christ is no different. I think it's not so much about waiting for the sun to shine again. It's about keeping your eyes on the sun even when the skies are cloudy. We must stay focused on Christ even when we face hardships because nothing should separate us from his loved. We are not called to wait until he rescues us from trouble to follow Him. We are called to follow through the good and the bad, to focus on Him even when life is hard, to feel the sun even when it's raining.