Fountains and Hydroelectric Dams

I unpack my grocery bag of bright red strawberries, a short, little pineapple, and stalks of celery in need of a good rinsing...

For some reason I thought about the farmer who harvested the bunch of celery. I had this strange urge to want to thank the farmer for growing celery. So, since tracking down the farmer seemed like a silly idea, I instead thanked God for the farmer. And, then I thanked God that He didn't make me the farmer.... That I don't have to worry about how much rain we've had or when to plant seeds and when to harvest crops.

Water must be on a farmer's mind all the time. Are the crops getting enough water? Are they getting too much?

I know I take water and its presence for granted. Only once in my entire life have I had to wonder where I would find water. Only once. But even then, I had a water bottle with me that would purify polluted river water if I got that desperate... (Thankfully, bottled water arrived without it coming to that.)

This week I can't escape the imagery of water. It's everywhere: falling from the sky today, in the first chapter of the book I'm reading, in the songs on the radio, and in the encouragement from believers who are pouring into my life.

Living water.

I have that.

I don't thirst.

I have "a fountain of water" inside of me. (John 4:14) And, like the water in the pipes of our house and the water that falls from the sky, at times I take that "fountain of water" for granted.

There is so much that Jesus wants to offer us, and so often we just take it's presence for granted and fail to accept it, especially if we've been following Him for a long time. We just tap into it when we want to... The fruits of the Spirit, the power that exists inside of us, even our very salvation...

We just go on about our happy Bible Belt lives. We know we're going to Heaven because we put our faith in Christ. And sometimes, unless someone gets hurt or money gets tight, that's just where it ends.

It makes me ponder... What could my life look like if I stopped picking and choosing the blessings I want to tap into? If I appreciated, if I understood, if threw a stick of dynamite in the fancy hydroelectric dam I've built that controls how much of Him I want to receive....

Why not receive it all? Why not pray prayers that could only be answered by the Ruler of the Universe? Prayers so big that I don't think what I'm praying for even exists! Why not experience every fruit of the Spirit? Why be scared of the unknown when He is for me?

Why pray for there to be enough rain to maintain our puddles when He has an ocean right there for us if we'll just ask for it?

Instead of praying for Him to open the floodgates only every now and then when things get rough in our lives, why not choose to live every day with them open?

He offers that. Want to throw a stick of dynamite in your dam? I don't know about you, but I want to see what comes! It might knock me off my feet at first! It might look scary and sound loud, but I'm not content to splash in a puddle when I could sail the seas.

How about you? What are you doing with your fountain?

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