The Farmer Who Sang Through the Drought

In 2012, Tom Neuhaus watched his corn wither across 1,200 acres outside Lincoln, Nebraska. The worst drought in fifty years had turned his fields to dust. No rain came in June. None in July. By August, the stalks stood brown and brittle as old paper. His neighbor sold his equipment at auction. Another family down the road packed a U-Haul and left for Omaha.

Tom's wife, Linda, found him one Sunday morning standing at the kitchen window, coffee untouched, staring at the ruined fields. She expected despair. Instead, he turned to her and said, "We're still going to church. And I'm still going to sing."

That morning, Tom Neuhaus stood in the third pew at Grace Lutheran and sang every hymn at full voice. Not because the crop would come back. Not because the bank had offered mercy on the loan. He sang because the God who had carried his family through three generations of Nebraska winters had not changed with the weather.

Habakkuk understood this. He cataloged every possible loss — figs, grapes, olives, flocks, herds — then planted his feet and declared, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord." The prophet's joy was not tethered to the harvest. It was anchored in the Sovereign Lord Himself. When every circumstance screams defeat, faith does not deny the loss. It simply knows where to place its weight. The Almighty remains steady ground, even when the fields turn to dust.