In the summer of 1980, Danielle and I were living in Newark, Texas. Newark is located on Eagle Mountain Lake, north of Fort Worth. Eagle Mountain Lake was created in 1932, by placing a dam across the Trinity River north of Lake Worth. When the dam was closed, the waters covered the river bottom throughout that area. The waters also covered the traces of ancient Indian campgrounds along the river.
From time-to-time, we would find along the shoreline some flint from arrow-making that had occurred in the region, but our finds were few and sporadic. In the great drought of the summer of 1980, however, things changed. The waters of the lake began to recede, exposing vast stretches of land along the old river channel. It also exposed more signs of the ancient Indian culture. Danielle was a more patient hunter than I, and during that summer she found several arrowheads that had been exposed by the receding water.
Her biggest find came late in the summer. While walking across a dry section of the lakebed near the old river channel, she saw something that looked promising. She stooped down, picked it up, and discovered that is was a six-inch spear point in almost perfect condition. It was an exciting discovery, and it occurred during the driest season that we had experienced in a long time.
That’s a funny thing about the dry seasons of life. You often discover more things of value then than at any other time of life. Droughts have a way of stripping away a lot of the things that often obscure our vision. They have a way of exposing things of greater importance.
There was a professional soccer player who was the picture of health and athleticism. His future as a soccer player held great promise. Then, disaster struck. He was injured in a terrible auto accident and was left paralyzed for eighteen months. His muscles began to show the debilitating effects of his paralysis. He saw younger soccer players on the rise, who began taking his place. As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, the sense of darkness that grew in this young man threatened to overwhelm him.
One day a nurse gave this young man a guitar. The only thing that gave him hope over these long days was the pleasure of learning to play that guitar. He not only learned to play, but he also discovered a joy in singing and, eventually, in composing. When he had finally recovered from his paralysis, the soccer career had ended, but in its place he had found something of great value. That young soccer player was named Julio Iglesias, and Julio Iglesias soon emerged on the world’s stage as one of its most influential musicians.
When Paul had suffered much loss from his thorn in the flesh, it was in that time that he made one of his most beautiful discoveries. He discovered that God’s grace was sufficient for him. The dry seasons of life can be seasons of great discovery. What have you discovered in the dry seasons of your life?
