Dig Your Wells Deep

If you know my father pretty well, you know there are a couple of statements he has made over the years that have stuck with the church in Owasso. One of those statements is this: dig your wells deep.

There is no greater way to learn than through a trial. For some people, your learning experience can be positive. You find out you are strong and your faith is secure, your faith is deep. For some people your learning experience reveals serious flaws in how you handle crisis and tragedy. It is not with pride that I admit that I found myself in the latter category. 

I was not prepared for the news that day. I was not prepared to walk into our first ultrasound appointment to find that our baby had no heartbeat and that tiny heart had most likely stopped beating a week before. What's interesting is I was totally prepared logistically. Tyler and I had actually had a conversation a week or two before that appointment when I had heard of this sort of thing happening to other people. We talked about what happens after that, what the options are, what would we do in that situation. But we still maintained the thought "that would never happen to us". So what do I mean when I say I was not prepared?

My well was shallow. I had not been preparing for the storm or for the drought. In my seasons of plenty, I did not store up as I should have. I had a really difficult time believing that God was good, and only good. That regardless of whatever crisis I am facing, He is sovereign.

So my focus for 2015 is just this: dig my wells deep. Through the process of having two failed pregnancies about 6 months apart, my well suffered but began to grow deeper. It would be so easy to sit by right now, just coasting because life is really going just fine. Sure, there are still hard things happening but I'm not inundated by a fresh crisis right now. Life is just fine, it is good. But coasting is not an option this time around. It's time to be proactive and dig my wells deep.

I am not naive enough to believe that the next crisis is not going to come. It is. I don't know what it will be. I don't know how it will make me feel. I don't know what it will take to make it through. But I do know, that I am determined to have a full well this time, ready to draw when the next storm comes. 

I have a feeling that I am not the only person that has learned just how empty their well was when they found out they needed something to draw from. Maybe you also found out that your well lacked the faith, strength, joy, or peace that you needed to make it through. This is my encouragement to you: dig your wells deep. Put in place practical ways to grow your faith in the seasons of plenty so that in the seasons of little or the seasons of pain you have something to draw from.

Whether you're in a season of plenty or a season of drought, it is always the right time to start digging.