The historic heat wave and dust bowl conditions plaguing much
of the continent have resulted in devastating crop loss, financial hardship,
alarmingly low water levels, higher prices for fuel such as ethanol and scarcer food
supplies. Ranchers and dairy farmers are feeding their livestock hay meant for
consumption next winter and wonder how they will manage when that runs out.
"You have a choice: Spend money to buy hay or spend money on fuel to get
hay. We may be looking for hay again in October," Illinois rancher Jim
Gardner explains. Some may be forced to slaughter or sell at a loss animals
they can't afford to feed or water, while animal shelters scramble to find adequate
resources to purchase a dwindling supply of hay for farm animals dumped on
their doorstep.
Water along river corridors is increasingly sparse or non-existent. "The ponds are gone. They're just big craters now. The trees are dropping leaves, diminishing what little shade they have," Gardner writes. The Salamonie River has receded so much that three towns, including Monument City in northeast Indiana, intentionally submerged in 1965 when the river was dammed in order to build a reservoir, have begun to reappear.
An estimated 62 percent of the continental U.S. is suffering from drought conditions, with more than 24 percent experiencing extreme or exceptional drought -- the two worst classifications. Nearly 1,600 counties in 32 states have been designated natural disaster areas. Governors across the country have issued burn bans and water restrictions to minimize the chance of wildfires as rivers, reservoirs and wells run dry. "I noticed several creeks and ponds that are no longer there," Marie Lowe of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, says. "One creek named Lost Creek appears to be literally lost. In Newkirk, a pond located near a casino is no longer there, and neither are the cattle that used to drink out of it."
About 40,000 shovelnose sturgeon were killed in Iowa in just one week as water temperatures reached 97 degrees. Officials said the dead sturgeon, which sell for more than $110 a pound and whose eggs are used for caviar, were worth nearly $10 million. So many fish died in one Illinois lake that the carcasses clogged an intake screen near a power plant, lowering water levels to the point that the station had to shut down one of its generators. Kansas also has seen declining water levels that pulled younger, smaller game fish away from the vegetation-rich shore lines and forced them to cluster, making them easier targets for predators, according to fisheries chief Doug Nygren of the Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.
Rhoda Auerbach, a retired San Antonio resident, describes the impact of the drought: "I couldn't open the side door because it faces west and the heat is so extreme that it fused the weather stripping to the door frame. ... The dog next door was lying under my outdoor faucet praying for a leak. I opened my car door using gloves so I wouldn't singe my hands."
In Olney, Illinois, lumberyard worker Kenneth Zimmerle labors outdoors through 100-degree days and no rain. "Some days I am so exhausted from the heat, I have been going to bed before 8 p.m.," Zimmerle writes. "This triple-digit heat has also affected our business since it is almost impossible to put shingles on in this type of weather. There are only a few hours a day that this can be done."
More than 3,000 heat records were broken over the last month. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts the lowest corn yield in 15 years. Kayla Stanley of Napoleon, Michigan, states: "People ... are painting their grass green because of water bans. The last time we cut the grass was months ago. No rain equals no growing grass. Nature is screwing with us."
Teresa Pena-Raney's peach orchard in Hazen, about 50 miles east of Reno, Nevada, has seen a local water irrigation consortium shut off their water supply for as much as eight months at a time. "A lack of water and drying trees are an everyday concern for my family. I've watched my parents' dreams [be] shattered over the last year, and I fear no end is in sight," Pena-Raney writes. "This just doesn't mean agricultural water, either; this meant water to residents' wells, too. ... With the water, we can save our farms. In the meantime, I'm just going to keep hauling water in buckets until the last tree is gone."
More on this story can be found at these links:
Thousands of fish die as Midwest streams heat up, USA TODAY
Drought diaries: How no water, extreme heat are hurting Americans, Yahoo! News
Midwest drought reveals Indiana ‘ghost towns,’ Yahoo! News
Study links current events, climate change, The Spokesman-Review
U.S. Plagued by Drought, Bleak Expectations for Crops, PBS Video
?The Big Questions
Water along river corridors is increasingly sparse or non-existent. "The ponds are gone. They're just big craters now. The trees are dropping leaves, diminishing what little shade they have," Gardner writes. The Salamonie River has receded so much that three towns, including Monument City in northeast Indiana, intentionally submerged in 1965 when the river was dammed in order to build a reservoir, have begun to reappear.
An estimated 62 percent of the continental U.S. is suffering from drought conditions, with more than 24 percent experiencing extreme or exceptional drought -- the two worst classifications. Nearly 1,600 counties in 32 states have been designated natural disaster areas. Governors across the country have issued burn bans and water restrictions to minimize the chance of wildfires as rivers, reservoirs and wells run dry. "I noticed several creeks and ponds that are no longer there," Marie Lowe of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, says. "One creek named Lost Creek appears to be literally lost. In Newkirk, a pond located near a casino is no longer there, and neither are the cattle that used to drink out of it."
About 40,000 shovelnose sturgeon were killed in Iowa in just one week as water temperatures reached 97 degrees. Officials said the dead sturgeon, which sell for more than $110 a pound and whose eggs are used for caviar, were worth nearly $10 million. So many fish died in one Illinois lake that the carcasses clogged an intake screen near a power plant, lowering water levels to the point that the station had to shut down one of its generators. Kansas also has seen declining water levels that pulled younger, smaller game fish away from the vegetation-rich shore lines and forced them to cluster, making them easier targets for predators, according to fisheries chief Doug Nygren of the Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.
Rhoda Auerbach, a retired San Antonio resident, describes the impact of the drought: "I couldn't open the side door because it faces west and the heat is so extreme that it fused the weather stripping to the door frame. ... The dog next door was lying under my outdoor faucet praying for a leak. I opened my car door using gloves so I wouldn't singe my hands."
In Olney, Illinois, lumberyard worker Kenneth Zimmerle labors outdoors through 100-degree days and no rain. "Some days I am so exhausted from the heat, I have been going to bed before 8 p.m.," Zimmerle writes. "This triple-digit heat has also affected our business since it is almost impossible to put shingles on in this type of weather. There are only a few hours a day that this can be done."
More than 3,000 heat records were broken over the last month. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts the lowest corn yield in 15 years. Kayla Stanley of Napoleon, Michigan, states: "People ... are painting their grass green because of water bans. The last time we cut the grass was months ago. No rain equals no growing grass. Nature is screwing with us."
Teresa Pena-Raney's peach orchard in Hazen, about 50 miles east of Reno, Nevada, has seen a local water irrigation consortium shut off their water supply for as much as eight months at a time. "A lack of water and drying trees are an everyday concern for my family. I've watched my parents' dreams [be] shattered over the last year, and I fear no end is in sight," Pena-Raney writes. "This just doesn't mean agricultural water, either; this meant water to residents' wells, too. ... With the water, we can save our farms. In the meantime, I'm just going to keep hauling water in buckets until the last tree is gone."
More on this story can be found at these links:
Thousands of fish die as Midwest streams heat up, USA TODAY
Drought diaries: How no water, extreme heat are hurting Americans, Yahoo! News
Midwest drought reveals Indiana ‘ghost towns,’ Yahoo! News
Study links current events, climate change, The Spokesman-Review
U.S. Plagued by Drought, Bleak Expectations for Crops, PBS Video
?The Big Questions
1. How has this year’s drought
impacted you? How do you think the drought will
affect you in the months ahead? How does the current drought compare to other
natural calamities that you have experienced? How did those disasters affect
your faith?
2. Has spiritual aridity in
your own life uncovered aspects of your past that had long been submerged? When
have you experienced spiritual dryness in your own life? In your church? What
led up to the period(s) of spiritual drought? What effect has that drought had
on you? On your family? On your community?
3. What remedies have you
found to relieve the problem of spiritual drought? Are there measures you can
take to prevent the likelihood or the severity of spiritual drought in the
future?
4. Isaiah describes a just,
righteous king as "streams of water in a dry place ... the shade of a
great rock in a weary land" (Isaiah 32:1-2). How can leaders fulfill this
role for the people?
5. Why is water in the form of
rain or rivers a good metaphor for spiritual life and health?
Some Questions and Bible Verses
The prophets proclaim the word of the Lord that: "By my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst" (Isaiah 50:2). "I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and animals, and on all their labors" (Haggai 1:11).
Questions: Who is responsible for the severe drought conditions we are
experiencing in our nation? Is drought a sign of God's judgment or punishment
upon America, or something else? What produces spiritual dryness?
Psalm 1:1-3
"Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper." (No further context needed.)
Jeremiah 17:8
"They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit." (No further context needed.)
Psalm 107:4-9
"Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress; he led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town. Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind. For he satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things." (For context, read 107:1-43.)
Questions: According to these scriptures, what spiritual disciplines
can aid us in preventing or ameliorating severe spiritual drought in our lives?
When we engage in such spiritual practices, what is the effect on our emotions?
Genesis 41:29-31
"There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. After them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; the famine will consume the land. The plenty will no longer be known in the land because of the famine that will follow, for it will be very grievous." (For context, read 41:1-57.)
God revealed the coming years of plenty and years of famine to Joseph so that action could be taken to conserve resources for the day when they would be desperately needed. We see here how God not only planned ahead to save his people from physical extinction, but also preserved Jacob's family, from which the Redeemer of humankind would one day descend.
Questions: How do you respond to the knowledge that God is always at
work behind the scenes to accomplish his plan of salvation, even when it is not
obvious to us? What do you think would have happened if Joseph and Pharaoh had
not listened to the Word of the Lord and had failed to act upon God's warning?
How should we prepare individually and corporately for hard times?
John 19:28
"After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), 'I am thirsty.'" (No further context needed.)
Questions: Jesus spoke these words from the cross. But he experienced
thirst throughout his life on earth, just as we do. What is the significance of
his words? How is it possible that the one who said he gives living water could
himself be thirsty? How do you feel when you realize he willingly experienced
your desperate thirst so that your spiritual thirst for God might be satisfied?
Psalm 63:1
"O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water." (No further context needed.)
Amos 8:11
"The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD." (No further context needed.)
Questions: How thirsty are you for God? Are you as desperate to hear
the words of the Lord as our parched land, fish, cattle and wildlife are for
water in this dry and weary land? What are you doing about it?
Responding to the News
Spend some time each day this week meditating on one or more of these passages about spiritual drought and God's promise of relief:
Isaiah 35:1-10
Isaiah 41:17-20
Isaiah 44:1-4
Isaiah 49:10
Matthew 5:6
John 4:13-15, 28
John 6:35
John 7:37-39
Revelation 7:14b-17
Revelation 21:5-6
Revelation 22:1-2
You may wish to close with the singing of a hymn or praise chorus, such as "As the Deer."
Closing Prayer
God of the Ages, we ask for your help in determining the path we should walk. Help us to make decisions that are ethical, healthy and in accordance with your long-term plans for us. May we always remember to take the time to rest, and to listen for your voice, that we may remain spiritually hydrated. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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