Digging For Water

When I was a little girl, I would often go visit my grandparents on the weekend. While there, I had the privilege of drinking fresh well water.

Now, I don't know about you, but I loved the natural flavor that came from well water. I loved the fact that there were no added chemicals to clean it or enhance it. It was just good, pure, untainted, drinking water.

From the time I was a little girl, I became a bit of a water snob. Unless it is well water, I hate drinking from the tap. I can smell the chlorine (even though it has been filtered out) when I turn on the sink in a city. City water just does not taste as pure--as fresh. It is tainted. I have always preferred drinking from the well.

But most people don't have wells on their property nowadays. Why? Well, because they require work to install. In order for a well to produce good drinking water, someone has to dig deep into the ground. They can't just dig until they hit mud either, they have to continue to dig until incoming the water exceeded the digger's ability to bail it out. In other words, that water had to be coming in faster than the person digging could get it out--which meant digging well below the water table level. But that is how you dig a well that produces refreshing, natural water.

But as I sit here remembering my grandparent's well, I think about how digging a well ties into reading God's word. Too often, we as Christians barely even scratch the surface when we read the Bible--but Jesus has promised streams of living water. Do you know why so few people experience those streams of living water? Because we fail to dig deep enough. We stick with John 3:16 or Jeremiah 29:11, but we don't reach deep enough to see Isaiah 31:6-7 or Galatians 5:13 (I am just using those verses as an example--they are not the determining factor of if you are digging into God's word enough). We might dig a little, but we do not see and taste the refreshing, untainted, living water from God's word--because it requires too much time or too much digging. And, who knows, in that digging, we might find ourselves hurt or offended by what God's word says--and we don't want that.

So, we become dehydrated Christians who shrivel up spiritually because we have no refreshing in our lives. Folks, it is time to dig in. It is time to dig deep. It is time to experience, maybe for the first time, God's refreshing word. Experience the stories, the prophetic words, the poetic cries for deliverance. Fall in love with God's word. Allow it to quench your thirsty soul. Dig that well, dig into God's word, and be refreshed. I dare you!