Desert Rain

Some things need to be dry.  Damp shirt - bad.  Damp socks - yuck.  Bread does well with jelly, but not so well with water.  Forget to roll up your window on a summer day; a passing shower will inevitably leave you a gift to remind you that driving a car is better done dry.

Dry is a difficult season for the soul.  You pray, no answer.  You read the Bible, it's like stale bread.  For pastors sermons come hard in the dry season.  You want to dig deep into God's Word but it seems like all you find is more sand.  Where is the artesian well of abundant life Jesus promised?  For blogger, writer, wannabe people like me dry seasons leave you with no ink.  It has been so bad that people who read my blog and listen to my sermons online have been emailing me, "Are you O.K?"  I'm fine, but that's where I've been for months now, dry.

This is not my first walk on dry ground.  If you follow the Lord long enough you know that eventually He brings rain.  We may be dry.  He is always faithful.  Whether you are on a polar cap or in the desert, the air may feel different but the sun is always the same.  My experience may change me, but it will not change God.  It will rain.

There have been several times in my life when God has spoken to me in an unmistakable way.  I'm not talking about sensing God's leading in a certain situation, I'm talking about God telling me something clearly.  It's not wishful thinking.  It's not my brain having its own conversation (you know what I mean).  It's God.  The first time this happened I was a college student.  My grandfather had just been moved to a nursing home.  My grandmother had lost an important check she needed to pay her bills.   Before I left her house I held her hand and prayed she would find that check.  When we finished praying I knew she would find the check within a day.  I told her, "Mamaw, God is telling me you are going to find that check within a day."  The next day she called me.  She had not only found the check, but she got another one in the mail to match it.  Rain!

Before I moved from Crossville to Birmingham God spoke clearly to me. The same thing happened in our move from Birmingham to Dalton.  Rain!  It doesn't happen often to me, but when God speaks you know it.  So for several months now I have been walking in the dry again.  I hate it, but I knew at some point it would rain again.  The problem with being human is that God is greater than the calendar and it is impossible to tell when His providential seasons will end.

Friday, God spoke to me again about several things we had been praying about.  I told my wife, this weekend it will happen.  The weekend came and went.  Several things were happening with great potential; the clouds were gathering, but there was still no rain.  Even Sunday night, I told my wife, it is going to happen, I just know it.  Monday afternoon I got out of my car and thought, maybe I missed it.  Maybe I have made a mistake.  Again, God spoke to me, it is all about to happen at once.

Last night, for our family, it rained.  Its been raining all day today.  I can't tell you about it now, but I will.

But I know what it's like to walk in the dry.  Every great man of God went through the desert; Moses, Jesus, even Paul (Gal. 1:17).  If you are walking through dry right now, remember the season may change, but the sun is always the same.  God is God, even in the dry.   Keep walking, it will rain.