Have you ever felt as though your well has run dry? Like you are completely exhausted, burned out, have nothing left to give? I believe that is when we need to dig down into our souls to find the strength and renewal only our Creator can give. Lately I’ve been feeling overwhelmed again, lining up too many commitments in my zest to say “yes!” to book promotion events, book coaching projects (of really good books I must add that I could not deny) and speaking/teaching engagements to spread the Word or help other writers. But these noble “calls” have left me a bit crazy to the point where I lost my cell phone on the plane trip home to Maryland from a Kentucky writers conference. If you’ve ever lost your cell phone, you know the dread of losing all of your contacts and photos and your only means of communicating with the world. So I panicked a little and then dug down deep to pray for peace, and got a new phone. Fortunately everything was backed up on the I-cloud!
I realized I need to slow down, find balance again, and refill my empty well – or better yet, allow God to fill it. Â And that’s where the digging down deep comes in. When I get in over my head, I tend to ‘suck it up’ and think I just need to put my head down and charge ahead on my own strength, thinking if I can just spend a little more time and energy (even though there’s not much left), I can plow through my work pile and somehow survive. But what happens to a well (or picture a plant or earthen vessel of some sort) when it undergoes more pressure and heat? It cracks and eventually breaks, sometimes beyond repair. We are those earthen vessels and in order to keep giving (pouring out refreshment for others) we need to be filled up from within – from God.
But how? We can fill up our dry, thirsty souls with God’s Word, with prayer and meditation and by spending time with God, by believing we are enough. We need to have faith that God will help us to overcome our difficulties and obstacles, even our overloaded schedules, if we let go and let Him. Just like He did for the questioning Samaritan woman who came to draw water. “Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’  (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 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.’ ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’ 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 14: 7-14)
We need to dig down deep to not only survive but to live peaceful, joyful lives. In my new novel, The Jealous Son, Eliza Trellis eventually “loses” her two children and completely goes off the deep end, not wanting to live under the weight of such tragic loss. Her faith eventually brings her through it all. I know women, friends, who have lost children and have managed to go on and live joyful lives. I also remember when my father was diagnosed with Stage 4, inoperable pancreatic cancer over three years ago. He was given a few months to live. At first he didn’t want to go on…but then he dug down deep for that will to live, started going for treatments and since has seen the college graduation of one his grandchildren, the birth of two great grandchildren and celebrated his 80th birthday with friends and family. Although I cannot (and hope I never have to) imagine the immense pain that comes with losing a child or finding out you have cancer, I hope that I would be able to draw from the reservoir of strength and hope I have from building my relationship with God.
I pray that when life’s challenges, no matter how big or small, come our way and we feel burned or burned out, we can dig down deep within and allow God to fill our “wells” (souls) with His refreshing peace, joy and love so that we can in turn let it flow out to others who are thirsty.
For more information on my latest novel, The Jealous Son, a modern murder mystery based on Cain and Abel, visit my Website Books Page
or: Available on Amazon Kindle – Order Your Copy Today!
