Facing drought or any kind of dry spell
A Christian Science perspective.
A dry spell. Most of us know what it feels like to be going through one. It might be a lack of rain that has persisted for a long time, or it could be a more figurative drought. In business, a company’s list of clients may be “dried up.” In a creative field, maybe inspiration has somehow “evaporated.” Gold-medal winning Olympic snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg had reportedly not won a snowboarding competition from the age of 11 until his unexpected victory at Sochi. He termed this long losing streak “a megadrought” (New York Times, Feb. 8).
Whatever the circumstances, it can be discouraging or frightening to be facing conditions whereby we don’t have a key element needed to prosper or even to live. Therefore drought, in its many forms, is strenuously resisted. Law firms rely on “rainmakers” – members of the firm adept at bringing in business. Environmental scientists strive to lessen the incidents and effects of literal droughts.
But sometimes a human solution to a drought or dry spell seems elusive, and that’s when people often turn to God.
The Bible records spiritual protection during times of literal drought or parched conditions. Hagar, Abraham’s servant, was inspired by an angel of God to discern a well of water when it appeared that her son might perish from thirst (see Genesis 21:17-19). And God provided water from a rock for the children of Israel when they were wandering in the wilderness seeking the promised land (see Deuteronomy 8:15).
Isaiah assures us that God provides spiritual solace during whatever kind of dry spell we might be facing, affirming that our very being contains the element we need: “[T]he Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:11).
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, believed that God meets the human need for supply, completeness, and satisfaction. In her textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” she wrote, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (p. 494).
If you feel parched, or you feel you’re lacking something essential, or the land you’re living on lacks water, you can humbly turn to God, the Giver of all good, in prayer. I’ve found relief and a fresh supply of good by affirming God’s love and provision for all His children and knowing that He cares for every one of us. I can then listen for the wellspring of ideas that God is providing.
In her book “Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” Mrs. Eddy assures us: “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies” (p. 307). And a hymn from the “Christian Science Hymnal” (John Newton, No. 71) states:
See, the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal Love,
Well supply thy sons and daughters,
And all fear of want remove.
Those who study the Scriptures discover that, in several instances, the concept of water takes on an inspired, symbolic significance above that of H2O, as in that hymn which speaks of not just water but “living waters.” In the Gospel of John, Christ Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman at a well (see John 4:1-26). He told her that if she had known whom she was talking to, the gift she would have received would have been not just well water but “living water,” and if she partook of that kind of water, she would never thirst again but would experience “everlasting life.”
Our true spiritual being eternally contains all the God-endowed elements we need to live and flourish with no lack or fluctuation. Jeremiah describes this spiritual state of completeness: “For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, ... and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8). Those who turn to God in time of any kind of drought can experience that fullness of life.