Streams in the Desert by Lettie B. Cowman
Lettie B. Cowman was also known as Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. Although not a Catholic, she was deeply religious like her husband. Together, they became missionaries in Japan. When her husband became ill in 1917, they returned to the United States, and there, she began to write the book we all know today as “Streams in the Desert”.
Streams in the Desert is a devotional book that can transcend religious barriers. Perhaps it is because it was written when Lettie’s husband was terminally ill that it contained so much words of comfort for those facing the darkest times.
There was a time when I held the book so close to my heart with its words of wisdom. At that time, I was still struggling spiritually and my Catholic faith was wavering. That was also the time when at the height of my auditing career, I felt a certain emptiness in my soul.
I was searching for some light amidst the darkness, for direction when I saw none.
The words contained in Lettie’s book have inspired me to hang on and to see some sense even when all seemed confusing and painful.
This book is for the troubled, for the anxious of heart and for the grieving. It is like a warm hand from a friend that can console you when you feel as though the whole world has deserted you.
It is never easy to understand suffering. Even the great C.S. Lewis struggled with it, and that may be why he had to write a whole book about it titled “The Problem of Pain”.
Lettie’s Streams in the Desert, however, is not an apologetics or philosophical book. You don’t need to perform some mental gymnastics just to understand what it’s saying.
On the other hand, it is a book from the personal experience of someone who has suffered much despite her faith. Someone who may even have felt abandoned by God, grieving and searching for some answers.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Have we not asked that question at the point of our deepest darkness and pain?
We have all had our Good Fridays when it just hurt so much that we almost lost sight of the Easter that was sure to come.
How do we trust when even God is silent? What do we do when all the world has abandoned us?
Streams in the Desert is a book that can touch the suffering heart. It contains easy-to-understand stories, relevant Bible verses filled with wisdom and poems that are more like songs, speaking out the words of a troubled heart.
Here is an excerpt of the poem in the book titled “The Eye of the Storm”
“Let hope be not quenched in the blackness of night,
Though the cyclone awhile may have blotted the light,
For behind the great darkness the stars ever shine,
And the light of God's heavens, His love shall make thine,
Let no gloom dim thine eyes, but uplift them on high
To the face of thy God and the blue of His sky.
The storm is thy shelter from danger and sin,
And God Himself takes thee for safety within;
The tempest with Him passeth into deep calm,
And the roar of the winds is the sound of a psalm.
Be glad and serene when the tempest clouds form;
God smiles on His child in the eye of the Storm.”
Written by Jocelyn Soriano from Single Catholic Writer
Jocelyn is a prolific author and book reviewer and has a successful Substack publication herself. You can read more about her in the link above.
This is the last of our Lenten literature series.
Our saints to commemorate over the next couple of weeks include St Curetan who for a long time was confused with St Boniface. There is also the rather entertaining St Charmaig of Argyll and of course St Patrick. We have not as yet done anything ourselves on St Patrick so I provide for you a link to a brillant Irish website: www.omniumsanctorumhiberniae.com that lists many of Ireland’s saints, which as long time readers of the Coracle will know, is where many of our own celebrated Saints come from. Other Saints this month include St Cuthbert and St Finian.