Before you read: I desire to help leaders across a wide spectrum. I deeply desire to see people lead well in the places where they live. Also, what is deeply true about me is this: I follow Jesus and I write from that perspective. This blog post is a bit more overt in expressing that reality. I wanted to name that for a couple reasons:
Those that read along that don’t believe/see the world from the same perspective -just a heads up and…
I am struggling to give voice to what is in me. I care about leadership deeply- but the solution for me at a root level of better leadership is actually being better, more whole and healthy of heart. Tactics, strategies and stories can help leaders gain awareness, but what can change the heart issues in my world view only comes from a connection to God. Thus, this post…
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My people have committed two crimes:
They have forsaken me,
The spring of living water
And they have dug wells,
broken wells that can’t hold water.
–Jeremiah 2:13
Last week I got the privilege of spending a few days in the Red River Gorge. A couple of those days I took our border collie – Sadie – with me. She is high energy and is in no way a lazy dog. Yet, there is one thing that was missing in my hikes last week: a large creek. We had taken several hikes previously that had streams and creeks and pools of water that she loved.
The water provided a place of real rest. It provide a cooling agent. It provided Sadie with a way to take care of her thirst. Water is life for human beings and animals.
I saw very quickly what happened when the cool creeks and abundant water were not near by. Sadie got tired. Tired is not typical for her. The paths that would bring her pleasure now seemed liked a burden. (please note, I was carrying water and would provide drinks for her – no dog was endangered during this hike)
Also, this past Sunday I started reading through the lectionary, and the verse above was the reading for this week. It talks of how God’s people had committed two crimes:
They had forsaken God, the living water. In other words they had taken the path that did not go near the cool and clean creek. The had avoided the place and the person that could give them rest, refreshment and restoration.
They had dug their own wells that were broken, and therefore could not hold water.
The deep things that the soul thirsts for the most – a relationship and faith in our Creator – is right in front of us. But we have a way of forgetting or avoiding drinking deep there. We chase other things – we actually dig wells that can not even hold water.
We are bizarre folks from time to time. People that have known and tasted the Living Water quickly forget where the source of true life comes from.
And likewise they seek a place to hold or contain water on their own. We dig and build broken wells around distorted priorities and twisted lies that in turn bind us even more deeply.
The solution:
1. Re-remember where the source of life comes from. Find the creek and jump in. Soak there. Find rest and relief from your thirst.
2. Walk away from the broken wells in your life that you have dug in desperation and self-dependence.
Oswald Chambers reminds us:
Keep your relationship right with Him (God), then whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water through you…
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