In recent weeks, every weather forecast includes mention of our area being in a drought, even after rainfall. Drought conditions exist when rainfall accumulation is below average, stream flow decreases, lake levels drop, and soil moisture is low.
Recovery from drought requires a long soaking rain rather than a sudden, short cloudburst.
Do you feel as if your life is in a season of drought?
Recognizing a Life Drought
A life drought is a period of stagnation when you experience a lack of growth, hope, and joy. Circumstances, illness, or grief contribute to feeling as if you’re in a season of drought.
Understanding the sources of personal drought may require introspection and honest assessment. Often, we avoid both introspection and assessment, but they are necessary in determining the root causes of a life drought.
Physical Drought
This week, after some weeks of physical drought, I’m watching the waves roll to shore. Exhaustion hovers in the periphery, but rest fuels restoration.
My fitness tracker refers to sleep as recovery. Too often, we push ourselves physically far beyond an activity level that provides rest and recovery. Yet the body can take only so much before physical drought ensues.
Consider changes you need to make to quench physical drought.
Emotional Drought
Do you ever feel emotionally numb? If so, you may be experiencing emotional drought.
Like physical drought, emotional parching occurs from a non-stop routine, unrelenting stress, or trauma.
I experienced emotional drought following my husband’s sudden death. For months, I existed in an emotional fog as I tried to process the unexpectedness of his death and the emptiness of his absence. Tasks took longer. I experienced periods of staring at nothing and then realizing I’d lost track of time. Undefined anxiety became my constant companion. I replayed the scene of finding Jim’s lifeless body and wondering if I could have saved his life if I come home sooner. Beyond all that, I couldn’t cry. I was in an emotional drought.
Then, months later, the flood gates burst, and my emotional drought was washed away by a torrent of tears.
If you are in an emotional drought, work toward regaining forward motion. Talk about what you are experiencing to a trusted friend, clergy, or counselor.
Spiritual Drought
Many are in a spiritual drought without even realizing it. Spiritually, your soul may look like the cracked ground of a barren desert.
Don’t assume it’s too late to quench a spiritual drought. Soak yourself in God’s word. Whisper a prayer for showers of blessings that refresh spiritually.
God is waiting to refresh and bless, if you will only ask.
“I will make my people and their homes around my hill a blessing. And there shall be showers, showers of blessing, for I will not shut off the rains but send them in their seasons” (Ezekiel 34:26 LB).
“Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring” (Hosea 6:3 NLT).
©CandyArrington
Candy Arrington is an award-winning writer, blogger, and speaker. She often writes on tough topics with a focus on moving through, and beyond, difficult life circumstances. Candy has written hundreds of articles, stories, and devotions published by numerous outlets including: Inspiration.org, Arisedaily.com, CBN.com, Healthgrades.com, Care.com, Focus on the Family, NextAvenue.org, CountryLiving.com, and Writer’s Digest. Candy’s books include Life on Pause: Learning to Wait Well (Bold Vision Books), When Your Aging Parent Needs Care (Harvest House), and AFTERSHOCK: Help, Hope, and Healing in the Wake of Suicide (B&H Publishing Group).
To receive Candy’s blog, Forward Motion, via email, go to https://candyarrington.com/blog/ and scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.