Digging Deeper

The home we raised our family in was a 100+ year old farmhouse located near a creek. I loved to think about the farmer choosing that spot to build his house, up on a rise near free-flowing water that would satisfy household needs. In the late 1800’s, this family probably drew all their water from that creek by way of heavy wooden buckets.

Our old house

After we’d bought the house, we had a surprise visit from the “little boy” who’d been part of that first family. He was in his 90’s then, bent over with age, but his memories of the house were rich. We walked from room to room, and while standing in the corner where he said his mother had worked at a dry sink, he told of the well his father and brothers had dug. It was an upgrade from the creek, but she had complained it was too far from the house.

He then told of the grand day his father had dug a closer well and linked it to a hand pump on the front stoop. (That explained the 3” round hole in the concrete.) Of course eventually they had running water, and just before we moved in, a fresh well had been dug to a depth of 127’. The water quality wasn’t good, but with a line-up of purifying tanks in the basement, it was acceptable.

A creek-water bath

After living there 12 years, one day I drew a bath for the girls, and the tub filled with very strange water. It had gritty soil in it and looked much like the creek water flowing outside. Our girls loved their “black bath” and felt like they were playing in the creek.

The next day a well-man gave us the bottom line: “Your well’s going dry, and you’ll need a new one.”

After accepting our fate, Nate told him, “Dig deeper this time. Maybe you’ll find better water.”

Dig right in.

A week (and $12,000) later, we had water again, this time from a 165’ depth. There was bad news and good: the water quality wasn’t any better, but the well pipe had hit a deep vein of water, assuring us we wouldn’t run dry again.

I thought of how quickly we were willing to “dig deeper” to get the water we needed, both in the yard and in our pockets. Are we just as willing to diligently dig for God’s truth? How much effort and expense are we willing to put forth?

In the USA we can “taste” spiritual water with virtually no effort or expense. It’s on the car radio, at the corner church, on our TVs, on the internet. The question is, have we cheapened God’s pure provision by wading through its abundance without actually drinking it in?

165'

If that’s true, God’s love will see to it that we inevitably “dry out” to the point of craving his water like someone dying of thirst. And when that happens, no effort or expense will be too great to quench our genuine thirst for him.

“Whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)

A-Z

Katie and her mom PamToday my friend Pam came over, along with her daughter Katie. Since they live in Denver, this coming-over was very special, an event that’s happened only a handful of times since Pam and I left college in 1967. These two ladies have criss-crossed the country to the tune of 5000 Jeep-miles, dropping in on people who’ve had a part in supporting Katie’s missionary commitment with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Thankfully my house was on their route, and we enjoyed sharing conversation and hot soup on this snowy winter day.

Pam remembered Lake Michigan as being the first really-big lake she’d ever seen (during our Wheaton years), so despite their tight travel agenda, after lunch the three of us made a quick trip to the beach. In an effort to save time, Katie volunteered to drive her Jeep to the lake, confident a fresh foot of snow wouldn’t hinder us.

But confident or not, most of life skips over Plan A and moves directly to B, C, and beyond. After a refreshing visit to the beach, we headed back to the Jeep through snow deeper than the underside of the car. Then as we tried to move forward (as well as back and forth), gravity slid us sideways.

We landed inches from a row of sharp rocks that threatened to slice our spinning tires, but Pam and Katie (seasoned travelers) were well prepared with two military-style shovels. As a result, our story had a happy ending, but we could easily have spun against the rocks, unable to move at all (Plan C), or found ourselves Googling “tire stores” for an evening of unplanned shopping and expense (Plan D).

No one is very good at predicting the unknown, which includes everything beyond the present moment. As those unknowns become known, sometimes we’re forced to pass through different Plans almost as fast as a child can sing the A-B-C song.

Plan B

This afternoon Pam, Katie, and I had no desire for a Plan B, which included kneeling in deep snow and bending beneath car bumpers to speed-shovel the snow away from 4 tires. But we did it in an attempt to revisit Plan A rather than miss the travelers’ afternoon and evening appointments in Chicago.

This time, against the usual odds, that worked. After digging out, we proceeded with confidence, and the Jeep lurched from the drifts onto the road, allowing my visitors to get to Chicago on time.

But what about when lettered plans move through the alphabet faster than we can adjust to them? That’s when our only choice is to surrender to the Plan-maker who will show us how to view Plans A-B-C-D not as steps down but as stepping stones to the higher ground he has in mind for us. In his mind, each revision is progress.

And he doesn’t even require a 4WD to move forward.

“Lord…. in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.” (Isaiah 25:1)

Hard to Focus

It’s been snowing again in Michigan, bringing winter’s unique beauty to the landscape. In an effort to send a picture-text to my grandchildren, I’ve tried again and again to capture a blizzard-in-progress. But the camera, whether it’s my phone or the old fashioned kind, has trouble knowing what to focus on.

Unfocused snow

One picture will be of a distant tree with blurred snowflakes in the foreground. The next might highlight one snowflake with everything else unclear.

People can have the same problem, not sure what should be the main focus. A husband might zero in on his job, which then blurs his commitment to his family. A wife might make her children the focal point, which isn’t fair to her husband. And for those of us who are Christians, our main focus can easily stray from the Lord and his Word.

But how can we check ourselves against focusing on the wrong things?

The first step is to decide what our main focus should be, just like a camera chooses one small part of a complicated scene to hone in on. My iPhone camera has a focus feature that activates as I touch the part of the picture I want it to focus on. A small blue square pops up in response to my finger, and when I “click” the camera shutter button, that area of the picture comes out in sharp focus.

The problem with photographing snowflakes is that they’re always moving. A camera’s focus-feature gets confused when it can’t successfully zero in on one item.

That’s true for us, too. When everything in our world keeps changing, we get confused about how to keep the main thing the main thing. It may even be difficult to determine what the main thing ought to be. And that’s why it’s important we choose to focus on those things that never change. As far as I know, it’s a very short list: (1) God, and (2) his Word. If I let my focus wander from those, life can get blurry in a hurry.

We can know beyond all doubt that God is who he says he is and will do what he says he’ll do. He won’t waver, change, or back away from any of his promises. And the intense love he has for us will never lessen.

Five fingers

Back in the 1960’s when Dad took Kodachrome pictures on a manual-focus camera, he’d line up his subjects in an effort to get a family photo but would have trouble finding someone to focus on who wasn’t wiggling. So he’d say, “Someone hold up five fingers and keep them still!” He’d turn his lens until the fingers were perfectly focused and then click the shutter. Because the faces were gathered around the hand, the whole group was perfectly in focus.

It works the same way when we close in tight to the Lord. Finding the right focus is easy after that.

“The Lord’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.” (Psalm 33:11)