I really thought that the best thing to do would be to get some dirt and finish filling the hole in around the rocks so that it could no longer collect water. Then, I thought, the grass could grow over that spot and it would no longer be a stinky, muddy mess. But the farmer I was helping said that wouldn't work. Why? Because the water wasn't collecting in the hole from rain. It was coming in from below. There were underground spring of cool, pure water that filled the hole. It didn't look too pure to me. But the farmer explained that the bad water wasn't about the water but what was in it. As the pure water came up through the trash in the hole it became polluted and poisonous.
So we went to work, pumping out the sludge, removing rocks and half-rotten brush, cleaning out everything from the hole. It took a while, and the process had to be done more than once before the water sitting in the well was no longer nasty. But when it was done, I found out the farmer was right. The water was cool, clear and tasty. The same spring had always fed that well, since it'd been dug. The water was never bad. The well had just gotten filled with trash that polluted it.
Our lives are like that well. It's not that we're worthless and nasty, no matter what it may look or feel like. It's just that we get polluted. If we try to ignore the past, it only gets worse, more slimy and stinky. To stagnate is to die. Covering it up won't work either, because eventually what's down there will make its way to the surface and make a mess out of what we tried to cover it with.
There is something else to keep in mind with the analogy also. The well did not, could not, clean itself out. We can't clean ourselves out any more than the well could. But we can choose to surrender to the One who can cleanse and restore us to who we were created to be. We can't change the past, and trying to is a futile waste of effort. But we can take the toxicity out of it. The poisons of shame and resentment can be removed like rocks and debris that are blocking the flow and filling the water of our souls with rot. The more of we clear out of the way, the more the Living Water can fill us with clear, pure, refreshing life-giving purpose.
We no longer have to be that dangerous and nasty obstacle in the middle of a field. Our story can be that we were created to be life-givers but got messed up and polluted. You wouldn't believe how toxic and nasty it got. But the One who made us did an awesome work, cleaned out the debris and the stones, pumped out the water that had been polluted and refilled us with new, living water, and continued to repeat this process until what was there was beautiful, clear, refreshment that was the most valuable part of the property.
Don't feel like your past makes you worthless, whether you've been poisoned and polluted by your choices, or by the choices of others, or by both. None of us were created to be stinky and slimy death. That is the unfortunate by-product of separation from our Creator. But no matter what, He can make us new, cleanse us, restore us and give us a purpose. We can be refreshing life-givers instead of the mess we see, He will do the work, we just need to give Him our heart.
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