Fountain of Life
I made a fountain!
We have recently invested a fair bit into a new patio at the back of our house. An excavator dug out the former, decades old concrete patio that was falling apart and slowly sliding down the hill side toward the lake. We have replaced it with a beautiful new patio made of concrete flagstone pavers.
In one corner of the patio I planned to build a fountain. My plan was not to hire someone to build it, like we did for every other aspect of the patio. No, I wanted to do this myself.
For many of you men reading this you are thinking, “No big deal.” However, for me this was kind-of-a big deal. I’m not really a handy man. In fact, Anne says they only thing that makes me handy is that I live close by. OK, maybe not, but I am not the most skilled with my hands.
I wanted to build this fountain as a spiritual metaphor of me – and of all of us really.
When we moved into our home in the year 2000, the previous owners left a beat up old concrete urn. It is large, awkward and very heavy. It cannot be moved by one man. It stands about 3 feet high, and is about 3 feet in circumference.
We never really knew what to do with it, or where to put it. We moved it from here to there in the yard and planted some flowers in it, but it just didn’t seem to fit.
When we were planning our new patio I had vision for what I could do with it. It would become the centerpiece of my fountain. I designed it as a vanishing fountain, where the water overflows from it spilling out onto rocks of various sizes that are flush with the surface of the patio pavers. It is simple enough to look at, but all the secret sauce is under ground.
I had to cut out the pavers in a 6 foot square, dig out the 36 square feet to create a basin, bury a container for the pump over 2 feet deep, then hook up all the various piping and valves to carry the water from the pump up into the urn. However the entire area needed to be covered with a cushioning material, then a water proof rubber liner before the pump and piping could be inserted and assembled.
The urn itself needed to have its cracks filled and sealed so it would be water tight. As I mentioned, it is a beat up old urn. It was chipped, faded, cracked, with most of the paint worn off of it. It looks like is should be thrown out.
And herein lies the spiritual metaphor: that urn is a picture of me and you. We were beat up old cracked vessels, empty and not much good for anything until Jesus offered to fill us with His living water. Jesus has filled us with a well-spring of living water that overflows our lives – new life springs up from within us.
In order for my fountain to work it needs two critical components: 1. It needs water. 2. It needs power. If the pump is not plugged in there is no water springing up from within the battered old urn – even though there may be water in the pump basin. And if the pump is plugged in but there is no water in the basis there will be no water overflowing from the urn.
So what does this mean for us? Well, no matter how you slice it we are battered and broken urns. Jesus has offered us new life – a well-spring of living water flowing out from our inner most being. However, we need to stay plugged into Him in order for the water of life to flow out of us.
Are you plugged into Jesus and experiencing His living waters springing up? If you feel dry, plug into Him and ask Him to fill you with His living water. He has promised to do so for those who ask.
You my friend are a fountain of life – Jesus’ life in and through you – believe in Him.
John 7:38
“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
John 4: 13, 14
“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
John 4:10
“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’”
Proverbs 4:23
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
God-Confidence, Not Self-Confidence
“I feel like everything I touch is falling apart.”
We were sitting in a restaurant having breakfast together. I was pouring out to a friend how it felt like my life was a disaster. All the things that used to be good were now going bad. It felt like I was cursed or something.
At one time it felt like I had the Midas touch – everything I touched seemed to turn to gold. Now it was all turning to… manure. My work, my marriage, my ministry in the church, my relationships were all souring. What was going on?
My world was crumbling…
Another friend told me he had a dream about me. His dream was of a building that was in the process of being torn down. Piece by piece it was being dismantled by a giant excavator. The rubble was littered all over the ground at the base of the building.
He got the sense that the building was a picture of my life.
The problem with the building was that its foundation was flawed. The Master Builder wanted to make the building more significant, but the flawed foundation would not be able to sustain the planned structure. So, because the Master Builder had a greater vision for the building, He was dismantling it. His plan was to form a stronger foundation that could carry the weight of the larger building He was going to build.
Dismantling is never a pleasant process, especially when you are not aware what the plan of the Master Builder is. It feels like punishment. It feels like God has abandoned you. It feels like the life God promised you is a lie. When you are in the midst of Godly dismantling you need the Godly input of people who know God and love you.
One such friend said something that was a turning point for me:
“I think God is shifting you from self-confidence to God confidence.”
What does that mean? Lord, I need your help to understand what this means…
So the Lord took me on a journey of surrender to discover His strength and His confidence, not my strength and my confidence. I had a great deal of self-confidence, but that is not what God has called us to. God has created us and called us to discover His strength, His hope, His love, His joy, His peace, His faith, His freedom, and His life that is way beyond our own resources.
It’s not about self-confidence, it’s about God-confidence.
We have not been created to live in our own strength. The way of this world is to discover your own strength. Self-confident people are lauded as role models for others to emulate. Yes, God has created you with unique gifts, talents, abilities, interests and desires. You have a uniqueness the world needs. You need to discover your uniqueness and live boldly in who you are.
However, your true uniqueness as a created being can only be truly discovered in communion with your Creator. Your God-given strength can only be revealed in relationship with God. As you surrender yourself to Him, you shift from depending on your own strength to His; your own wisdom to His; your own resources to His.
As you surrender to God the foundation of your life will be rebuilt. It is transformed from the shifting sand of human wisdom and lies meant to keep us from God’s life, to the bedrock of God’s Truth. On the foundation of God’s Truth you can withstand the storms of this life.
There is only one way to live in God-confidence: surrender to Him. Not your will, but His. Not your desires, but His. Not your wisdom, but His. Not your life, but His. Not your plans, but His.
If you are feeling like your life is crumbling it may be that the Master Builder is calling you to surrender to Him. He is inviting you to discover His confidence. He is offering you a trade – self-confidence for God-confidence.
That’s a good trade. It has made all the difference in my life.
Philippians 3:3, 4, 7, 8
“For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh – though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more… But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”
Isaiah 31:1
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord.”
Jeremiah 17: 7, 8
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Is It OK To Pray?
We gazed intently into the dark waters looking for what was ascending toward us. Fear, dread and hope mixed together to create a unique sense of anticipation about what we were about to experience.
We were nearing the end of our efforts. We had tried again and again with no success. Would this be the attempt that would lead to success and freedom from that which had held us captive? Would our frustration, fear and dread finally yield to exhilaration and joy?
This attempt was our final option – we had exhausted all other avenues. If this didn’t work we would either have to go back and keep repeating what had previously not led to success, or we could cut our losses. This could be an expensive lesson in regard to what we would not do next time.
As we strained to discern an indication our efforts had been successful, our fear and dread suddenly turned to euphoria. Our efforts had paid off! We had overcome the odds set against us. We prevailed.
We got our anchor unstuck!
Four men on a 40’ boat. We dropped anchor in a beautiful cove off Gambier Island amidst a number of other anchored vessels. What we did not know was that the bottom of the bay was littered with logging debris and was a bit notorious for snagging anchors.
If you snag an anchor you have a couple of choices. You can attempt to pull the anchor in numerous directions other than the one in which the current and wind have been pushing you. We did this in four directions with no success. It wasn’t budging. In fact, in our efforts to free the anchor we crumpled the anchor pulpit.
We decided to do something prior to our successful attempt to unsnag the anchor. We hadn’t done this on any of the previous attempts. We should have thought of it earlier, but we didn’t.
After much frustration we said, “Hey, let’s pray about this.”
So, we gathered together and simply asked the Lord to help us get unstuck. We were experiencing no success with our human efforts, so we asked the Lord for His assistance.
As we were cruising back to safe harbour with the anchor now securely affixed to our crumpled anchor pulpit, one of the men said, “I don’t think I would have prayed about that. I would have just done what I thought needed to be done and thanked God if I was successful.”
His honesty sparked a conversation about how we can simply pound through situations without praying. We often don’t invite the Lord into the challenges we’re facing. Not because we want to exclude the Lord, but simply because we don’t really think of asking for help. We just try to figure it out.
We often wonder, “Does God even care about this?”
Even as I am writing this article my i-phone is non-functional. I am doing everything I can to update the software, reboot and refresh the system, talk to Apple to figure out what is going on, search for how I wipe out and restart my system, but have I prayed? No. Why not?!
I’m just trying to figure it out.
Does God care? He cares about us and, therefore, cares about the things that impact us. Is he bothered if we invite Him into these kind of situations? I don’t think so.
However, He is not a vending machine God – press D3 for what we want when we want it. He sees far more than we see. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He wants us to live life in Him, communing with Him, seeing from His perspective; from a broader, Godly, Kingdom perspective.
So, in the midst of your simple challenges, like our anchor scenario, it’s totally appropriate to ask the Lord to help you see things from His perspective, to ask for wisdom and strength to do what needs to be done, and to ask for His divine intervention.
We can cast our cares on Him because he cares for us.
Is it ok to pray? Absolutely – far more often than you may think.
1 Peter 5:7
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
James 4:2b, 3
“You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
Ephesians 6:18
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
How Do You Handle Conflict?
Do you avoid conflict? Do you create it?
We all handle conflict a little differently. Some of us try to avoid it at all costs. Some of us make a habit of it. Some of us work through conflict.
Do you think that an absence of conflict is a sign of a good relationship? Many of us do. If we don’t have any conflict then we must have a good relationship – right? Well, I really don’t think so.
I recently spent some time with an international management consultant who uses a very interesting litmus test for the health of a business. He is often sent in to assess the value of a company that his client wants to acquire. This is one of the key assessments he uses to make a recommendation in regard to whether or not his client should buy the company:
Does their leadership team know how to work through conflict?
The reality is, people in close relationships will not always agree. We will disagree. Not only will we disagree, but we will have conflict on occasion. Because we are flawed, we will do and say things that hurt each other.
The question becomes, how will we deal with the conflict?
When in conflict we have 3 choices: Attack, Avoid or Attend to the issue.
I have the capacity to engage in all 3 options, but my primal reaction is to avoid and attack. However, I do it in a very unique way. I can fall back into a core lie I first believed decades ago. I am free from it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have to keep battling it when I am in conflict.
So, when someone hurts me I am tempted to disengage and believe the lie that, “I don’t need you”. I can respond with, “Fine, I don’t need you anyway” and withdraw from the relationship. No, I’m not angry, I’m not resentful – I just don’t need you. We’re done.
It’s avoidance and a passive attack. It’s a horrible conflict coping mechanism I have to deal with when someone hurts me.
I am tempted to do this with both friends and family. It’s terrible. But more than that, it’s sinful. It’s also cowardly. You hurt me, fine – I don’t need you anyway. I can shut people out. This sinful coping mechanism will keep me isolated and alone, never getting close to anyone.
My life will be devoid of close relationships if I don’t choose to attend to the issue and believe the Truth not the lies, receive the grace of God and extend it to others, forgive, and then courageously have the conversation that needs to be had. Avoiding and attacking will not solve anything.
I am somehow wired to feel things deeply, so when people hurt me I feel it. I wish I didn’t feel things as deeply as I do, but that’s who I am. I have a tendency to be overly sensitive and let things impact me in a way they don’t perhaps need to. And, it takes work for me to extend grace and believe the best about people.
I can’t really change my sensitivity, but I can change how I react to being hurt.
I have to choose not to avoid the conflict. I have to choose grace toward those who hurt me, I have to choose forgiveness, I have to choose not to believe the lie that I don’t need anyone, and I need to choose to work through it, to have the conversation.
We cannot avoid being hurt, we cannot avoid conflict, but we can choose how we respond to it. We can choose to courageously have the conversation that needs to be had and extend grace and forgiveness to others. We can also choose to humbly own and apologize for our hurtful actions and sinful choices.
We can learn to choose not to attack, and not to avoid, but to be courageous enough to attend to the situation and work through the hurt to resolve the conflict and the relationship.
So, are you aware of how you handle conflict? What will you choose: Avoid, Attack or Attend to the issue?
Colossians 3:12-14
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Proverbs 10:12
“Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.”
Ephesians 4:26, 27, 32
“’In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Hardship or Opportunity?
The sound was like a 2×4 breaking in two. It reverberated across the entire soccer pitch commanding the attention of players and spectators alike. The game came to an abrupt halt.
I lay on the ground writhing in pain aghast at what my leg looked like. My right lower leg was bent at a right angle. My tibia was completely snapped in half and my fibula was snapped into thirds by two breaks. Three clean breaks meant that my lower shin and foot flopped around like a rag doll as I rolled around on the ground in agony.
When I hit the ground I clearly heard the Lord say to me, “I did this. I’m with you.”
It was third year university and I was playing soccer. It’s tough to say what really happened other than it appears when I attempted to clear the ball out of our zone an opposing player put his foot on the other side of the ball. All the force of my kick went back into my leg and it shattered.
The break was so violent it nearly severed the nerve to my foot. The broken bones along with the nervous damage made for some intense pain. The bones were very unstable and had to be set three times. My leg was casted for 2 months when we discovered it was healing crooked.
The orthopedic surgeon then rebroke my leg, took a bone graft from my hip, and bolted a surgical steel plate up the length of my shin. The plate was left in for 2 years then taken out. I had to stay off it for another year. In all the process took about 3 years. My leg works great now though.
The most painful part of the ordeal ended up not being the breaks, it was the nervous damage caused by the breaks. Have you ever really smacked your funny bone and experienced the intense nervous pain in your hand and arm? That was what my foot felt like.
It was very tough.
In the midst of the pain and discomfort I remember crying out to the Lord that I didn’t want to miss what He wanted to say to me and do in my life. He told me to calm down and know that I couldn’t miss what He was doing as long as I Ieaned into Him and rested in Him.
He had invited me into a hardship that was an opportunity to grow in Him; to know Him in new ways. He did something in my heart that could not have happened any other way. He was tenderizing my heart and teaching me to trust in Him and not in my own strength.
I had a choice: would I see this solely as a hardship, or would I see it as an opportunity to know Him?
I believe this is one of life’s key choices: will we see difficulties, trouble, sorrow, loss, sickness, and pain simply as hardship we want to get out of, or will we see it as opportunity to know the Lord?
Do we ask the Lord to get us out, or do we ask the Lord to help us find Him in it?
Anne has a very close friend who for decades has suffered through a life threatening sickness that has caused her much pain, discomfort and inconvenience – exceedingly more difficult than my simple broken leg. Has she sought healing? Yes. However, the Lord has not healed her yet. Is she bitter and angry in her hardship? No. She has discovered Jesus in the midst of it.
She has transitioned from hardship to opportunity. She is a powerful testimony to a heart yielded to God, walking in the intimacy of His grace in the midst of the pain.
Are you facing an emotional, spiritual, or physical hardship? Are you getting lost in anger or resentment, or hopelessness, or sadness? I would encourage you to shift your perspective to see this as an opportunity to discover Jesus and His grace and love.
It is oftentimes in the midst of our deepest hardship where we discover the sweetest intimacy with Jesus. Hardship is our opportunity to know Him.
Romans 8:28
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:38, 39
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:17
“Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”