Lenten Devotions in Hard Economic Times

TWENTY-SIXTH DAY OF LENT 
                    MARCH 18
  
 Isaiah 43: 19b
 
Into the parched high noons of our lives,
Where crisis builds on crisis,

Where there is no reserve from which
We can
Draw;
 
Into the deserts where we wander,
Unguided, uninspired, unprepared,
God-forsaken in the badlands,
In brutal terrain of heart and mind
That does not
Wish us well;
 
Softly treads the promise of
A way,
A way out,
A way through,
All the shifting, swamping, menacing
Sands
Of uncertainty;
 
Stoutly comes the Word of
An outpouring—
Not just a trickle,
But a burgeoning—
Of water rushing clear and sweet,
Plumping up our cells,
Keeping us alive,
Rescuing us from the dehydration
Of our spirits,
Saving us from the desiccation
Of our moral fiber,
Restoring us from the evaporation
Of the dew
Of expectation.
 
I will make a way in the wilderness,
And rivers in the desert.

 
Isaiah cited from New Revised Standard Version
commentary in italic