Drought Conditions

Texas needs rain. Texas has never needed rain this badly before in the four decades that I have been alive. Everything is dying; our crops, our cattle, our lawns, our lakes and rivers, and our trees. Oh my, how the trees are dying; looks like winter in New England around here they are so golden and brown. It would be beautiful if it were not so sad.

The people charged with knowing such things tell us that the drought could last through next summer. Next summer, and we are barely finished with this one. I don’t know if I will last through it, I know my lawn will not. But I am reminded that we Texans are a hardy lot, we’ve been through worse before, and when I say “we”, I don’t mean me.

But I do mean my paternal grandfather. He grew up in a Texas drought like this, in fact, he grew up in one much, much worse. My grandfather was raised just after the turn of the last century in the panhandle of Texas, a dusty, solitary place populated mostly by cattle, cash crops and cowboys. He lived in an area known as the High Plains, in a town called Dalhart.

The High Plains experienced one of the deepest and most enduring droughts of the twentieth century. It became affectionately known as the Dust Bowl due to the almost daily terrific dust storms that covered everything inside and out with blackness and dirt. The dust storms killed everything – crops, livestock and livelihoods. It turned everything into tumbleweeds and dry, faceless prairies. What is more is that the dust bowl occurred at the same time the Great Depression was griping the country. The Dust Bowl lasted more than five years.

Much has been written about that time and the people who endured it. In fact, my grandfather wrote one such book, High Plains Yesterdays. I read his book and the other accounts of the time and I am amazed at what those people were able to endure. Many people did not survive and many people simply fled the area but some, like my great-grandparents, stayed hoping to see better days. They somehow woke up everyday believing that was the day the drought buster would come.

While the physical drought I am currently enduring in my state is not as difficult or as sustained as the one my grandfather and his parents endured, I am experiencing another type of drought which is as long and as deep. And it is taking all my courage and endurance to get through it. We all experience such droughts. Time periods in our lives where we are working towards a goal and it seems like nothing is happening. We are getting nowhere, accomplishing nothing and we are bearing no fruit. It all just seems dead, dusty and a lost cause. What we need is a drought buster.

That’s what the man at the sheep pool needed. (John 5:2-9) Once a year an angel of the Lord’s went to the pool and stirred the waters, the first person into the pool was healed of whatever ailed them. The man was sick and had lain by the pool for 38 years. For 38 years someone else had always beat him into the pool. When Jesus came upon him, He already knew what ailed the man but He asked the man if he wanted to get well. The man answered by saying he had no one to put him into the pool when the water is stirred up. Jesus told him to get up, pack up his bedroll and walk. Right there, Jesus busted the man’s drought.

Now, several things get my attention in this story. First, 38 years is a really long time to wait for something, yet Jesus still asked the man if he wanted to get well. Second, Jesus already knew what was ailing the man. Lastly, Jesus told the man to take his bed with him, because he was healed and would never need to pass this way again.

The man was tested and had to endure a long period of drought before he got what he wanted. I think that’s how God still handles us. Hopefully, our testing and drought won’t take 38 years, but we will be tested and it will be dry, very dry. During the dry seasons, we can be assured that God knows what is ailing us and He knows what we want. We don't see God but He is there and He is with us. And once God breaks our drought we will have endured testing that we will never have to endure again.

We strive for our dreams, make plans, set goals, but before they can come to fruition God puts us through a period of testing to see that we really want what we say we want. God knows us well, He knows our minds and tastes change and if we are to fulfill the plans of our lives we have to be prepared for them. Enduring droughts has a way of strenghtening a person and helping them succeed at what comes next. Just ask the citizens of the High Plains.

The people of the Panhandle were tested mightily but they endured. Those that stayed were stronger and better for having gone through the dust bowl days. They were prepared for whatever life threw at them next. Their drought busting rain did eventually fall. Our job is to do what they did, wake up everyday with courage and faith believing that today is the day we will see our drought busting rain. When it does finally rain, and rest assured it will rain, we will be prepared for whatever lays in store.

Start packing up your bedroll, I see a storm cloud on the horizon.
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