Monday, June 5, 2006

Rain

I hear the rain pattering on my glass door beside me. It hasn't rained all summer to the point that we were considered a federal disaster/drought county and it was going to bankrupt our farmers. Then it started to rain. Oh boy has it rained. For 10 days it rained. Then we got a couple that were just cloudy and muggy but no rain. One day was actually sunny. Today it has started again. Our grass grew so much the mower was getting clogged.
What I don't understand is the way the weather is. People from years ago say it wasn't like this when they were my age. They say we got snow all winter- feet and feet of it. They say we had nice rain all summer.
But you don't know who to believe... the people shouting it is the polar icecaps melting and we are at the end of the world- ready any moment for a "day after tomorrow" moment. Then there are the other voices saying it is not that dire- that yes we need to be more responsible but we are not destroying the earth and its atmosphere and weather.
Here is the hard and true fact though: once we screw up our weather we can't just up and fix it. And once it is screwed up the whole earth will be. I watch the news and talk to my cousin in Tennessee... I see what is happening in other places. I see the lack of rain in places that used to rain and thunderstorm something fierce when I was a teenager there. I also try to balance my mind with the fact that the dustbowl happened way before we used freon and all the other things that they say are destroying the atmosphere. There are times in history that are traceable by soil and other elements that point to the fact that this is nothing new. The question now being... is it too often now? It may not be new, but is it happening unnaturally more often? If so, why?
If I could share my rain with those of you who need it...I would. I would give you the gentle, steady, solid, consistent rain like that out of a movie. The rain that we are blessed with today. And I would mention that each of us needs to think deeper on this. What are we doing and why? Are we taking care of this earth the way God wants us to? Don't toss the question to the side. Look at your trash and your gas tank receipts and what you are putting into your body and ask yourself honestly. If you can live with your answer then I can too. I just think we fail to ask and actually answer the question fully- so we never actually have an opinion that is based on anything of substance.
Think. Evaluate. Pray. Do.