A Leaky Bucket

“…they have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” Jeremiah 2:13.

Your life is like a well… dug a little deeper each day. That well, as it gets deeper, reaches water and begins to fill up. As it fills, it either holds water or loses water depending on how well you shored up the walls. What if, after all that digging, the water was not clean? Would you keep drinking from it… or dig a new well?

We get really good at the tradition of New Year’s resolutions, but shortly afterward they are drowned with unclean water. Sound familiar? Is it because our, so-called “resolutions” are shallow? Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “It is not length of life, but depth of life.” We all want to live longer, but what about living deeper? My Dad had a well on the farm in Iowa. It went dry and they had to dig a new well. As they dug, they quickly hit water. Daddy said, “Keep digging deeper.” “Why dig deeper, you already have water?” said the worker. My Daddy, who was more brilliant than his 8th grade education said, “The deeper you go, the fresher the water!” That didn’t make sense to me then, but make great sense to me now. Does it make sense to you?

We have a choice with every moment that passes by: how well we dig, how deep we dig, and the reason for the digging. The first part of Jeremiah 2:13 says, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water”, and you know the rest (above). Living water only comes from a Living God, living inside of you in the form of the Holy Spirit. The water cannot bubble up in you without spending time at the well of God (His Word).

Things of lasting value come from living out what you have gained from time spent at the well, splashing about in the clean, fresh, living water! If you don’t consistently play in the bubbling pool… you will be living for yourself (trying so hard to keep those resolutions). How do I know? It only took from chapter 1 to chapter 11 of Genesis for the people to build a tower (well) unto themselves (Genesis 11:1-9). And, much to our dismay, the human race has not changed since then! Don’t you think that after thousands of years we have that building process down to an architectural 3-step science? Three steps after January 1st, those well-intentioned resolutions become a distant hope-maybe next year…

What can you do to make sure you don’t “dig” for yourself, “dig” too shallow, or “dig” in vain? Let the Creator of the living water; dig the perfect well that will hold the effervescence of living water. He is the only one who can create a well that will have lasting value… not just a leaky bucket!

Our best efforts at well-digging (resolutions) will only produce muddy water if we are digging on our own (forsaking Him). How about God-solutions instead of resolutions? Just a thought…

Splashing in the effervescent bubbles…
Kathy

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