This year has officially been one of the hottest years on record in Texas. The drought has struck our economy, farming, ranching and recreation hard. Fires have destroyed millions of acres of land, and lakes that I grew up skiing and swimming in are drying up. All toll the drought will cost Texas around 5 billion dollars.
Around the world people are feeling the impact of the Texas drought. Cotton, a crop that I watched grow in front of my childhood home, has been hit so hard that Texas will only produce about half its normal crop. That may not sound like much until you realize that Texas produces 55% of the U.S. cotton crop, a full 2/3 of which is exported and is now hitting the pocket books of people in China, Mexico and other nations. Hay has been almost completely lost, and with little or no hay, beef will be in short supply over the next few years as ranchers sell off their herds. But this is just one season of life, and like all seasons, it too will pass. Needless to say I am ready for this season to change, and I am excited about what the future season will hold.
Every year around this time I find myself enjoying the change of seasons, and this year it is especially true. Growing up in south Texas we really only had two seasons – Hot and Humid and Not-So Hot and Humid. I can remember as a kid going out in my shorts and a t-shirt on Christmas day, and dreaming of a white Christmas. I loved winter. It wasn’t bone chilling cold and we only had measurable snow 2 times in 18 years, but the snakes hibernated and hunting deer was allowed, and as a kid who loved the outdoors, that was the most exciting season.
When I moved to Abilene, I felt the change of season a little more. The dry air and the plains of west Texas lent the climate more variation. The summers were hotter and dryer, the winters were colder and dryer, and for the first time in my life I found myself enjoying the cool evenings without a mosquito screen.
As the temperature cools and rain hopefully returns, I challenge us all to spend some time thanking God for something as simple as the seasons of the year. A time of incredibly vast amounts of change – from weather, to plants, to hibernating animals – and a time to be mindful of what God is doing in our lives. Singing Oaks goes through many seasons of life and I am thankful for the season of growth we are having both in number and in relationship. What about you?
