Praying for Rain

For the last couple of months, during this severe drought we have been having in my part of the world, every Sunday we would pray for rain. Well, it seems our prayers were heard. With a vengeance.

I have been thinking about this whole idea of praying for rain, or for any particular change in the weather. I remember the summer of 1986. It had not rained in months. Crops were drying up. Cattle were dying. Governor Richard Riley asked those who were praying people to pray on their Sabbath one weekend in July. I was serving Wood’s Chapel UMC, in the country outside of Greer. I announced that next Sunday we would be taking time to join others in praying for rain. The next Sunday, before worship, I was walking down the hall when I felt something hit me on the back of the head. I turned around and there stood Fannie Wood, the 4’10”, 80-year-old treasurer, her long grey hair in its tight bun on her head, holding an umbrella she had just whacked me with.

“Fannie, why did you hit me?” I asked. “Where is your umbrella?” she responded. “Fannie, it hasn’t rained in months,” “If you’re going to pray for rain, bring an umbrella!” “Yes, ma’am,” I said, rubbing the back of my head.

Back in seminary one of my classmates, a delightful woman from the Pentecostal Holiness Church, told me of praying for rain for her father’s land. He was a farmer, and they needed rain. She said it rained on his property, and not on anyone else’s. She said even when he had lots that were separated from each other, and surrounded by the farmland of his neighbors, it still rained only on his land. “Don’t you think you might have prayed for the neighbors, too?” I asked. “They didn’t ask me,” she said.

When I served the rural church in Oswego, we had an informal early service, attended mostly by hunters, farmers, and people who were going from Sumter to Mr. B’s restaurant in Lydia for lunch. Almost invariably during our prayer request time, some farmer would ask that we pray for rain (they did not have enough) and another would ask that we pray that the rain stop (they had too much).  “It’s the battle of the opposing prayer requests!” I would think, but not dare say. “Let’s see who is the most righteous. After all, the prayer of the righteous availeth much.” (According to James 5.)

While the Bible does speak about the weather, it doesn’t say much about praying for it. The only times it clearly does is in 1 Kings, and it is referenced in the aforementioned James 5, and that was mostly just to show who was boss.

The drought here has been bad. Corn did not tassel, beans dried up. Who knows what the cotton will do. All our lawns are crunchy, and for a while, the Little Pee Dee River, which is not really little, dried up. It was affecting farmers, people who worked outdoors, older people, and people without adequate air conditioning. So, we prayed.

There has been about 18” of rain fall on my yard over the last three days. Fortunately, I am on high ground. My front yard has puddles, but no flooding. People in my neighborhood who live near Jeffries Creek have found their sewer systems backing up and flooding into their driveways and yards. Out in the country, where most of my church members live, none of them have flooded homes yet, but some are getting close.

Maybe we prayed a little too fervently.

I am not sure that we should be praying for the weather directly anyway. Remember when Pat Robertson, famed televangelist of the 700 Club, prayed for a hurricane to avoid his Virginia Beach headquarters? He said that his prayers caused God to redirect the hurricane. So, God moved it away from Pat and his multimillion-dollar site, and decided to destroy some other people’s homes? I cannot imagine any of them being attracted to Pat’s god. Besides, Virginia Beach does get hit by severe weather, but not as much as South Carolina beaches. This is due to geography, not to righteousness.

Maybe instead of praying for rain (or snow or clear weather) we should pray for something more important. Like praying that we will wise up about the things we are doing that are affecting our climate. And maybe even go as far as to do something about it. Global warming and deforestation, among other things, are changing the weather. And most often, not for the better.

And praying for those who are affected by it. What can we do to help the farmers, the elderly, the sick, the poor? Those who are hit by extremely high tides, floods, and winds? It seems that the Bible, both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures, speaks more about that than changing the rain gauge.

And maybe pray to learn how to find joy in whatever weather we have. My niece Megan, a young woman who is very insightful and wise, lives in Mankato, MN. They get a lot of snow. And it becomes a slushy mess for a long time. She once wrote, “If you can’t find joy in the snow, you will have less joy, but the same amount of snow.” Same goes for rain.

I am glad for the rain. We did not need so much of it all at once, but it will hopefully replenish the water tables. And the Little Pee Dee will flow again. And I am grateful to God for whatever comes my way. So, I will try to help those around me and those I see in need on the news.

And that will be my prayer.