Joshua Olmsted in his November 2009, Pentecostal Herald article, “What is Faith?” told the story of three farmers that met daily in the field during a dreadful drought. Every single day, they fell to their knees, and prayed that God would open the heavens and pour down abundance of rain. The heavens remained silent, and the farmers became discouraged.
One day a stranger came by and asked what they were doing. They answered, “We are praying for rain.”
The stranger shook his head and disagreed.
One of the farmers retorted, “We have not had rain for more than a year and we are praying for rain.”
The stranger told them that their efforts were futile and would never work.
Another farmer said, “We must have the rain, not only for ourselves but our farms and livestock.”
The stranger responded, “You are wasting your time.”
The third farmer annoyingly said, “What would you do if you were in our place?”
The stranger queried, “Do you really want to know?”
The three farmers answered, “Yes! We want to know!”
The stranger said, “I would have brought an umbrella.” That took faith!
James Poitras 