…but joy comes with the morning. –Psalm 30:5b

I’m friends with a couple who are farmers out in western Kansas.  I saw them last week and they looked…well, they looked kind of dazed.  Beaten down.  And why not? There’s been no water for them this summer. Their crops have been burned to a crisp by the severe heat of the past month.

I said, “So, do you have to go out and do special irrigation for the crops?”

They looked at me blankly.

“No,” they said.  “There’s no water.  No water out of the ground, no water in tanks.  There’s nothing to irrigate with.”   Wow.  The significance of drought began to hit me.  And apparently there was nothing to do about it, either.   Nothing to do but just wait, and pray.

I’ve been there.  Spiritually.

I’ve been through seasons of life when it’s as if my lifeline to God had just shriveled up.   I had no reserves of faith to draw on.  I was choking on the dust of a meaningless existence, my roots pulling inward, my brittle leaves shattered and blown away on the hot wind.

I’ve experienced drought.  Have you?

It’s not something you easily bounce back from.   Sometimes a forced smile isn’t enough to wet your parched lips.   Sometimes you can only wait.

And pray.

* * *

Yesterday I awoke singing a line from a song I’d last heard some thirty years ago.   Here are the words (by Medical Mission Sisters):

I saw rain drops on my window, Joy is like the rain.
Laughter runs across my pane, Slips away and comes again.
Joy is like the rain.

I saw clouds upon a mountain, Joy is like a cloud.
Sometimes silver, sometimes gray, Always sun not far away.
Joy is like a cloud.

I saw Christ in wind and thunder, Joy is tried by storm.
Christ asleep within my boat, Whipped by wind, yet still afloat,
Joy is tried by storm.

I saw rain drops on a river, Joy is like the rain,
Bit by bit the river grows, ’til all at once it overflows.

Joy is like the rain.

* * * * *

My prayer today is a simple one.   For those in a drought…

I wish JOY.

Have a great week,

Mitch