Recently I have watched the film "The Shack". The events of the film is narrated by a person who is also a character in the film (Willie). At the beginning he gives some information about Mackenzie's(main character) father. Here it is:
His father was an elder in the church. A closet drinker.
Especially when the rain didn't come, or came too early...
Most times in between.
The first line is clear: The man is a worker in the church and he is not supposed to drink but he brakes this rule.
I didn't understand the second line. Why the narrator is mentioning rain? How can it be related to the closet drinker?
The third line will get cleared, I think, if the second line gets cleared first. Can anybody explain what the narrator means in the second line?