Deep Wells

During the process of producing olive oil, an olive must go through a dark season when it is being crushed by a huge millstone. The produce of the first harvest, the initial squeeze of a batch is set aside as anointing oil. It is in the crushing that anointing is found. 

It is during times of crushing that our souls yearn and long most deeply for God. I believe there are depths to our souls which resonate with the depths of eternity. There are places in us which are so deep we cannot describe the longings, and we can’t fathom the depths. I believe this is our deep calling out for his deep. These deep longings resonate with eternity, for which we were created.

We try to find what we’re looking for in many places, thinking “this is what I was hoping for!” Yet the deep longing of our hearts can only be met in God. 

The period of crushing continues until we realise that in order to find contentment, we need to find the deepest wells, the places that provide refreshment, the cool water we can draw long and deep from. We don’t need to stumble around looking for these, they were there all along - we just don’t turn to them. 

This well is actually in us, but we choose to fill it with junk, which clogs and blocks the call and response from deep to deep. We throw in unhealthy stuff we’ve been feasting our eyes upon, things we can’t be bothered to deal with, hurts, broken relationships, and bitterness, and then wonder why, when we do turn to the well, it’s so bitter to the taste. 

I’ve spoken before about our hearts being like attic rooms filled with junk, where we store so many negative things rather than treating it like the throne room that it should be. Our soul tells the same story. It should be a place of purity, that God can fill up with himself, bringing all the nourishment we need. But he cannot fill a space that isn’t there. Sometimes we grant him a shallow spot to fill up, and we think it’s enough, but when we turn to it, it’s tepid, cloudy with dust. Drinking from this ‘puddle’ leaves us unfulfilled. 

It’s time for us to clear our wells out. Our souls are deep, deep places, which God can fill to overflowing with all that we need to rise above. He can give us the sustenance, nourishment and refreshment that our souls need. But he cannot fill a well that isn’t a receptacle. 

Once we allow this infilling to happen, we become a source of life to others also. Not that others drink from our well, but because our ‘cup runs over’, and the refreshment, life and joy that we find, is contagious. 

Take some time today to intentionally sort through your heart and soul. They are deep - but what is in them? Have we clogged them up? Thrown trash down there? Are we poisoning our well, so that what comes out is bitter to us and to others?