The years passed and eventually the farmhouse was modernized. Wiring brought
electric lights, and indoor plumbing brought hot and cold running water. The old
well was no longer needed, so it was sealed for use in possible future
emergencies.
But one day, years later, Sanford had a hankering for the cold, pure water of
his youth. So he unsealed the well and lowered a bucket for a nostalgic taste of
the delightful refreshment he remembered. He was shocked to discover that the
well that once had survived the severest droughts was bone dry! Perplexed, he
began to ask questions of the locals who knew about these kinds of things. He
learned that wells of that sort were fed by hundreds of tiny underground
rivulets which seep a steady flow of water. As long as the water is drawn out of
the well, new water will flow in through the rivulets, keeping them open for
more to flow. But when the water stops flowing, the rivulets clog with mud and
close up. The well dried up not because it was used too much, but because it
wasn't used enough!
Sanford observed that our souls are like that well.' If we do not draw on the
living water that Jesus promised would well up in us like a spring (John 7:38),
our hearts close and dry up, and we find ourselves in our "eighth season." The
consequence for not drinking deeply of God is to eventually lose the ability to
drink at all. Prayerlessness is its own punishment, both its disease and its
cause. That's the deeper meaning to our fatigue in the ministry.
Used with permission from Deepening Your Conversation With God by Ben Patterson
(c)1999 Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Book House Company. All
Rights Reserved, p. 43-44.
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