How About That Weather? No, Really … by Mike Crowe

Consider your conversation over the last week.  How much of it involved talk about the weather?  Seriously.  Think about it for a moment.

We often use “talking about the weather” as a euphemism for simply making small talk or carrying on a casual conversation.  But when it’s all boiled down, all our talk about the weather might actually reveal something profound about the state of our hearts.  Consider these questions:  How often do comments you make regarding the weather involve complaint?  In the dead of winter, do you find yourself complaining about the cold and longing for the greener grass of springtime or the heat of the summer months?  When the sweltering temperatures of summer arrive do you find yourself complaining about the humidity and hoping for the long days to pass quickly into autumn and then winter?

Too often, I find myself wishing for better days, be they the warm afternoons of summer or the cold mornings of winter.  It’s as if the grass is always greener on the other side of whatever weather pattern – sunshine or snow – or season we find ourselves in at any given moment of the year.

So, what’s the big deal?  Consider another question:  Who controls the weather?  Who is it that sends winter’s snow or spring’s rain?  Who is it that, as Jesus said, mercifully and graciously “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).  Who is it that blesses us with the beautiful sunshine of a summer day or the cool, crisp breeze of a fall evening?  Who is that blesses us with the quiet, tender snowfall of a February morning?

Our Father does all these things, and as Jerry Bridges says in his book Trusting God:

“Though God sometimes uses the weather, and other expressions of nature, as an instrument of judgment (see Amos 4:7-9), He most often uses it as an expression of His gracious provision for His creation.  Both saint and sinner alike benefit from God’s gracious provision of weather.  And, according to Jesus, this provision is not merely the result of certain fixed, inexorable laws.  God controls those laws.  He causes His sun to rise, He sends the rain.” (97).

Ultimately, our complaints about the weather amount to complaints against our God.  They are nothing less than grumblings against His sovereign care and expressions of our unbelief in His careful, gracious ability to daily govern His creation with compassion and wisdom.  In effect, when we complain about the weather, we’re evidencing the fact that we really are no different than the nation of Israel that we encounter in the book of Numbers.  Numbers 11:1 tells us that “the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord.”  What hardships?  Had the Lord not rescued His people from slavery and called them into relationship with Himself?  Had he not given them a clear means by which they might dwell in His forgiveness through the sacrificial system?  Had He not provided them with food, protection, and leadership as a people?  Certainly, there’s a place for biblical lament or complaint as we see it displayed in many of the Psalms, but when we grumble about the weather, whether those complaints involve our dislike for summer heat or rainy days, we’re complaining about our Father who holds it all in His gracious grasp and provides abundantly for us rain or shine, each and every day.  Again, Jerry Bridges says, “We as Christians need to stop complaining about the weather, and instead learn to gives thanks for it.  God, our heavenly Father, sends us each day what He deems best for all His creation” (97).

So, next time you see me, ask me about my “weather talk,” and I’ll do the same.  By God’s grace our conversation won’t be filled with complaints but words of thanksgiving that well up from believing hearts of trust in our Father.