Greetings Dear Reader,
My Grandfather’s neighbor had a well. It was the classic kind that you think about
with the stone circle, a wooden roof, and the bucket on a pulley. It even had a lid. One day his neighbor was out trimming bushes
and I asked if I could draw a bucket of water up from the well. The man regarded me for a moment and then
explained that there was no water in the well anymore. Something had changed and he had not been
able to draw a bucket of water for some years.
He went on to explain that he always meant to dig the well
deeper of fill it in but he kept hoping that one day it would just have water
again. We walked over to the well. He removed the lid and let down the
bucket. All of the well was clearly in
good repair. He showed me how to draw up
the bucket using the crank. As he had
said the bucket came up empty.
Ten years later I first heard the song Dried Up Well by Mustard
Seed Faith. The image of Mr. Park’s well
and the dry bucket on the end of the dry rope came rushing back to my
mind. It seemed so futile to me that he
maintained the well and all its parts when he knew that it would produce no
water for him.
It is not lost on me how obviously we translate this action
to our lives. We try to constantly drink
from dry wells in almost every area of life.
We maintain the edifice without any hope of things doing what they are
meant to do for us. A well is meant to
produce water. No matter how pretty and maintained
it is if there is no water then the bucket comes up empty.
When we try to draw from any well but Christ the bucket
eventually comes up empty. When we fail
to follow Christ our own well becomes empty, or worse polluted. When I told my Grandfather about the well
incident his reply was something that also stayed with me, “What is down in the
well comes up in the bucket.” We cannot
hope to give living water from our wandering broken hearts.
As I try to help sing you home Dear Reader I hope that this
song makes sense to you. I am in the
place of refilling my well. It has been
a long time since I tended to its source properly and most of my energy is
focused on that. In concentrating on
faith and following I seek to find a clean heart and right spirit so that
perhaps I will still have something to offer others.
It is not me that you should follow. I am not a good man. I am a fallen man trying to follow the one
who gives us living water. If you keep
trying to drink from my well then eventually the bucket comes up empty or
worse. My brother and I were talking
yesterday and he mentioned that when we see good in others we need to remember
that it is Christ showing himself through them.
I sing for you Dear Reader, though you cannot hear me. We will get there if we simply follow the
song and look for the one it promises. His
well does not always look pretty but the water is always the very best. We should draw up a bucket and refresh
ourselves before we keep walking.
Dried Up Well –
Mustard Seed Faith
All through this life
You wander her and there
Looking for something anything some place where people care
You search for meaning in a dark and dying world
You get no smiles except from those you know so well
And it's so hard
To even tell
You're trying to drink
From a dried up well!!
And through the years
The many roads you take
The many dreams you had the life you tried to make
The precious moments the suffering and the pain
The many times your happiness became tears that fell like
rain
And the emptiness you feel inside
Is like a bird
That that hasn't learn to fly!
And now a door
Opens wide for you
The door is Jesus
Won't you come and walk on through?
His living waters will fill your dried up well
And overflow it with a love that you can tell is the answer
your looking for
All you dream of
And so much more!
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer
who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home
owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Contacts for Aramis
Thorn:
Bookings at aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com
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