Drought

Sunday 4/5/2015 4:51 AM

California is in the middle of a severe drought. The rainfall and snowpack over the past few years has been below normal and this year we have received only about 6% of a normal year’s precipitation. Throughout the state reservoirs are at an all time low and wells are going dry. Last week Governor Brown ordered mandatory restrictions on fresh water usage in an attempt to conserve what little water there is.

Over the past couple of years I have also experienced a spiritual drought. My devotional time, once a source of refreshment and of new insight from God, became a barren wasteland leaving me thirsting for God and for direction but receiving none. Over the course of the past few weeks there seems to be a bit of a turnaround but I wonder if it is only a temporary reprieve.

In her book, In the Sanctuary of Women, Jan L. Richardson writes about what I have experienced. “And the well runs dry. It’s one of the most common experiences in the spiritual life. A practice that we have cherished, a habit that has deepened us and drawn us closer to God, a discipline that we perhaps have engaged in for years, no longer seems to work. Gradually over time or overnight with no warning, its familiar contours turn foreign, dull, perhaps even painful. Pondering the questions that lie at the bottom of a dry well offers a journey of its own. What I know is this: to find the answers, we have to pay attention to the dryness. This is a desert place. As uncomfortable as it may be, there is no substitute for these desert places in the spiritual life. They offer a wisdom that we cannot get any other way.” At this point I am not sure what wisdom I received from my spiritual drought. I was simply frustrated and somewhat angry with God for putting me through the experience. Maybe I need to spend more time paying attention to the dryness, as Richardson suggests.