John Ogilvie in his commentary on Acts tells of a friend who was building a home in the mountains of Vermont in a place where it’s very difficult to get water. “He asked an old Vermonter to come over and divine the source of water on his property with a stick. Sure enough, this old-timer found the appropriate spot. “Just dig fourteen feet straight down here and you’ll find an underground river,” he told my friend. “When you hit the water, pump it out every day.” My friend followed the instructions and found the river. He pumped it out the first day and more water came in. In the next few days, the water rose to four feet, then six feet. At eight feet it seemed stationary, so he left it. Returning some months later when the house was finished, he immediately turned on the water. The first day there seemed to be plenty, but by the next day there was none at all. The well was empty. In spite of his efforts to revive it, my friend ended up having to dig an artesian well at a cost of three thousand dollars. Much later he ran into the old Vermonter in town and told him the disappointing story. “Did you pump it out every day?” was the question. “No,” said my friend. The Vermonter shook his head. “You fool! An underground river is made up of thousands of little capillaries running underground. As you pump the water you enlarge those capillaries and more water comes. Once you stop, the water backs up, the capillaries close and the river is formed somewhere else.” Ogilvie goes on to say, our life in Jesus is like that. As we give our time, our love, our money, the well is always filled. When we begin to believe “What’s mine is mine” somehow our lives dry up and we’ve lost the key to everything.” That’s why serving is so important. Our willingness to give ourselves sacrificially for others allows the flow of God’s grace to continue. As long as we are pouring out, He is pouring in. You and I were saved to serve.
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