Watering the garden before it is bright enough to see colors has not been my favorite morning task this summer.

Striving to see that time and effort as a way to serve the Lord and His creation helps a little bit. The birds and the bees (and the chipmunks) do enjoy the birdbaths, and most of the plants have managed to survive with mostly-artificial rain.

At least the sky hasn’t completely forgotten how to rain, which is a worry that nips at a gardener’s heart during times of drought. We, and farmers especially, might start to wonder if God is angry with us, has forgotten us or simply doesn’t care about us when the need for rain grows dire. However, such dark ruminations tempt us to draw away from God, and we must battle such thoughts.

God has not forgotten any of us during this drought. He continues to care. Jesus, his Church, the saints and hopefully some of our own experiences testify to the faithfulness of God to every generation. We forget that all too easily whenever we embrace a ‘woe is me’ outlook.

When we indulge gloomy thoughts, they will push us to turn away from the Lord in anger or frustration when things great and small don’t happen the way we think they should. If we don’t anticipate such temptations and counter them with the good sense that is rooted in faith, we run the risk of giving into chronic crabbiness or depression or despair when life gets difficult.

A dour view of God can get to be a habit, and then we become our own worst enemies.

Such a view may seem natural to us. As children, we may have absorbed negative thoughts, sayings, expectations and attitudes toward God from those surrounding us then, warping our current view of God. Perhaps someone in our past had a deep distrust of God, and it rubbed off on us. Maybe our elders were never taught that God is Love as touted by St. John the Evangelist, and we thus learned only about God-as-Judge.

Too many of us accept our own, limited views of God as being accurate and complete. If we gave that notion more than two seconds of thought, we’d realize it is ludicrous. Everyone houses realities within themselves that we don’t suspect, experiences we can only guess at, knowledge that they haven’t shared with us. It is the same, only more so, with our infinite, Almighty God.

Periodically giving some time to expanding our knowledge of God won’t hurt any of us, and it can be a great help to all whose thoughts have gotten gloomy this hot, dry summer.

We can start by asking: Who do I think God is? What images come to mind? What words describe God for me? Who is God to me?

Next, we can pray for guidance and turn to the Bible for some “official” glimpses of this One who is such a mystery. Think of the stories of the Old Testament that impressed you and read them over to see God in action there. From walking with Adam and Eve to whispering to Elijah on Mount Carmel, from interactions with David and Moses, Jonah and Jeremiah, God has revealed something of Himself there.

Jesus reveals even more, saying at one point that those who see him see the Father also. If the only stories you recall are when Jesus cursed the fig tree and when he drove out the moneychangers, you probably have over-focused on the God-as-Judge view. There’s a lot more than those two snapshots of Jesus in the Gospels.

We can turn to our favorite saints for inspiration and understanding. Each of them grasped part of the truth of God and experienced Him in ways that brought them to trust Him completely. Their stories can build up our trust also.

Evaluating our difficult circumstances with the eyes of faith is not an automatic thing. When we make the decision to deliberately bring our faith into our thoughts, we can develop a new habit of going through life with faith. Then our paths, no matter how rocky and dry, will be brighter. We’ll notice the good things that help balance out the bad. We’ll discover anew a spirit of gratitude for His help.

And our concerned hearts will be lighter.