Water on Thirsty Ground

In the summer of 2012 ninety percent of USA counties declared a state of emergency due to drought conditions. Corn crops shriveled and grain prices soared. 2013 doesn't look any more promising - at least in the West with low winter snowfall in the Rockies and projections that river-flows across the western states will be below average in 2013, as they have been for ten of the last 13 years.

Some ecologists today feel it is too late to talk about ‘sustainable’ strategies and focus instead on being ‘resilient’ as the earth's environment moves into deepening crisis.

Chronic drought can be debilitating, not just on the landscape, but in every area of life. Drought comes in many forms – when inspiration fails, when customers, job prospects or funding sources dry up … when marriage turns sour or brittle, or a daughter no longer calls home. Droughts like these cry out for relief just as desperately as farmers scan the sky for signs of rain.

That’s where some lines from the prophet Isaiah sing out to us with glistening hope:

I will pour water out on the thirsty land.
I will make streams flow on the dry ground.
I will pour out my Spirit on your children.
I will pour out my blessing on their children after them.
They will spring up like grass in a meadow.
They will grow like poplar trees near flowing streams.
Isaiah 44:3-4

Isaiah’s words came to the Jewish exiles in ancient Babylon as they wilted in ghetto communities and labor camps along the Euphrates. They were surrounded by physical water, but their souls were dry, their faith was parched, the future looked barren. Their children felt rootless with fading interest in the old traditions, culture and faith.

A 2012 study of church drop-out rates among young adults in Canada called Hemorrhaging Faith paints a similarly bleak picture. The landscape looks dry and unpromising and the status quo is surely unsustainable.

But barren landscapes don't tell the whole story. Isaiah invites us to embrace his song about rain and renewal, about God’s life-giving Spirit breaking into a new generation, about grass springing up in parched woodlots and poplars lining the riverbank – pictures of growth, vitality and a promising future.

This song – God’s song – counters the fear of the exiles – and the fears that paralyze us today. And parents, pastors and youth workers around the world can hear this song between the lines of Hemorrhaging Faith.

The larger context of Isaiah's song is about God as Creator and Redeemer, a God who calls us by name, who exposes the pipe-dream vanities, the contradictions and chaos that undermine our lives, a God who invites us instead into relationship and partnership in his mission to transform the dry and thirsty world.

That's a powerful song for today - the first day of Spring 2013. And Friday is World Water Day.  Until then, sing!

Image Credits:
Drought Map - Circle of Blue
Fresh Grass - Vanashree
Hemorrhaging Faith - James Penner & Asociates

Dew in the Diaspora

It was misty when my wife and I went for our early morning run, but before we had even left our yard we were arrested by an extraordinary beauty. During the night spiders had woven nets from every bush and railing they could find – and captured the dew in necklaces that sparkled like diamonds in the early morning sun.

For half an hour photography trumped exercise, but when I got running I got thinking about what the prophet Micah wrote about the dew in Micah Ch. 5.

Micah lived in a harsh dog-eat-dog world where wealthy land-owners were devouring their poor neighbors. He saw beyond the injustices and the grim exile that it would bring about. He foresaw a ruler who will come forth from the same obscure village where king David was born (Micah 5:2). He will shepherd Israel like a flock, protecting them from both aggressors and from their own aggressiveness. They will be a ‘remnant’, ‘a purged and select company’ (v.7 MSG) who ‘will live among the nations like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass.’ (Micah 5:7)

Presence

I think one of the most memorable lines in all of Isaiah’s inspiring 8th century prophecy is this –

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.
Isaiah 43:2.

These words occur in the part of Isaiah that describes Israel’s release from exile and return to their homeland, but they also convey God’s promise to sustain Israel through the ordeal of exile, which was truly a deep water trauma. It was an upheaval so jarring and disorienting, many Jews doubtless lost what little faith they had. It seemed obvious that God had abandoned them and broken covenant with them.

Selling the Poor for a Pair of Shoes

Ranchers take a pretty good read of the land – and when grazing lands grow dry they think hard about the implications. Amos was a rancher who thought hard and prayed hard. In his day, 200 years after King David, Israel was a fractured nation, split into north and south. Both were prosperous and religious, and they credited God with their prosperity.

But Amos recognized that their religion had very little effect on their ethics. While the wealthy were making money hand over fist, it was largely at the expense of the poor. They would “sell the needy for a pair of sandals” Amos 2:6.

Song for Africa's Newest Nation

Tomorrow Africa’s newest nation will be born.

During my visit to South Sudan in 2008 I saw the ruins of schools and churches destroyed thirty years ago at the hands of their own government. I met young people born in refugee camps and listened as grand-parents spoke of their dreams of a re-building their nation.

Now thanks to international efforts, and a referendum in support of independence they have a fresh opportunity for peace and growth.

They need our prayers.

Never Empty-handed

In my previous post we looked at the marvelous gift of rain and that showers down on the earth every hour of the day and night, achieving a vast array of benefits in the environment. It augments alpine and arctic snow-packs, refreshes rainforests and woodlands, nourishes meadows and grain-fields and then by returns by evapo-transpiration into the skies to do it all again.

It’s the original re-use and re-cycle process built into the universe.