Last week, Alabama Governor Bob Riley officially implored Alabamians to do something many of us were already doing.

“I, Bob Riley, Governor of Alabama, do hereby encourage citizens of Alabama to pray daily for rain.”

In the midst of one of the worst droughts in state history, Riley went as far as declaring June 30-July 7 as “Days of Prayer for Rain”. (Read the Montgomery Adviser article here.) The article notes the response to this news from individuals like Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists in Cranford, New Jersey, who is quoted as saying, “Words escape me. Are we really conjuring the rain gods to bring rain?”

If Alabamians are indeed invoking their gods for rain, then our fellow Americans in Texas and Oklahoma are certainly praying a different kind of prayer. Weeks of rain have led to flooding rivers, evacuation orders and at least a dozen deaths. My friend Jon, a native Oklahoman, has asked us to pray for his friends and family back home. (Click here to check out some of the pictures of flooding in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.) In these areas, the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army, with the help of local churches, are rushing to meet the basic human needs of those families who’ve been displaced by the flooding.

I suppose the Ellen Johnsons of the world will always scoff at the perceived “silliness” of prayer. Personally, my faith compels me to beseech my God in times like this. It’s an interesting juxtaposition — drought in one area, flooding in another — but my prayer for both situations has become a prayer of provision. I pray that God would bring an end to the flooding in Texas and Oklahoma. I pray the flood waters will subside without further displacement or loss of life. Here in Alabama, I pray that God will bring the rain our farmers so desperately need. (And it seems to be working. It’s rained here in Huntsville for the past few days, Ellen Johnson notwithstanding!)

In all things, may people of faith be known as people of prayer.