Leaky Buckets
Jeremiah 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Imagine standing at the window for a moment watching the kids playing outside, busy with ‘kid things’ and having fun. One of them has a bucket and is determined to bring water from the spigot to the ‘fish pond’ they’re constructing on the other side of the yard. But the bucket they found is one with a hole in the bottom. They fill it until they’re barely able to carry it, and then drag it, sloshing, across the yard. But the whole time they’re working hard to get to their ‘work site’, the water is draining out of the hole. They arrive only to realize they lost most of the water and they have to go back to refill, hoping that this time they’ll be able to return with more water. But each time, it yields the same result. Yet, they continue this fruitless effort. Trip after trip yields little compared to their effort.
We look at this and know exactly what the problem is and how to fix it. Yet, when something like this happens in our own lives, we’re oblivious to the spiritual significance. Far too often we work hard to fill ourselves with things that we think will satisfy, but we haven’t allowed Jesus to repair the ‘hole in our bucket’ and all the things we fill ourselves with simply drain out and leave us empty and unfulfilled. We become exactly those of whom Jeremiah 2:13 speaks- forsakers of Christ, digging our own cisterns that are broken and cannot hold water, working so hard to be filled yet not recognizing we will never be able to satisfy that thirst ourselves.
We are confronted daily with our own desires and the lies that tell us we’ll find our satisfaction in other things- whether they be relationships, careers, finances or experiences. And there isn’t anything wrong with those things, but when we set them on a pedestal as the answer to and fulfillment of our dissatisfaction and they become the things by which we determine our value, we set ourselves up for disillusionment. We create idols and false gods that we exhaust ourselves serving. It’s fruitless and empty. We are trying to fill a bucket that has a hole.
Colossians 3:1-2 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” If we belong to the Lord, our hearts and minds need to be focused on him.
Where is our focus? To Whom do we look for fulfillment and satisfaction? As our world grows darker and more tumultuous, our ‘buckets’ are sure to become battered and worn. Yet Christ is able to heal and fill us in extraordinary ways. He is the only One who can sustain us. Are we looking to Him?
And what about our sons and daughters? Are they digging their own cisterns, cracked and unable to hold the Living Water? Are they falling for the lies or are they protecting their hearts and minds in Christ?
Today, let’s take time to pray that our sons and daughters would not forsake the Lord. Pray that they would not try to satisfy their spiritual thirst with temporal things but that they would let Jesus fill them. Pray their hearts and minds would be set on Christ and they would be satisfied with His living water filling them afresh each day.
Pray without ceasing.