It’s that time of year — as Lent winds down — that we look inward deeply and also that time of year when, after spiritual struggles, we need to refresh our spirits.
If you’re a bit tired or beaten up (from a Lenten “workout”), go to the well; recharge and discharge; refresh yourself — by giving more.
Do it by using your gifts.
We all have gifts and Grace flows when we use them for good.
Go heart-deep into Holy Week. If you have wounds, let Grace flow through that sacrifice.
There is a flow of the Holy Spirit when we freely let Grace flow through us to others.
As it flows, it revivifies us. We refresh our own “wells.” Your wounds will be healed.
Did you know that when you dig a well, the more you pump out of the well, the greater becomes its capacity — the more that comes into it from the surrounding aquifer?
And the more new water that arrives, the more refreshed we become. If we give alms, plenty comes to us; if we seek to heal, we are healed (in some way); if we lend strength, strength comes to us. If we are kind, others are kind to us. It was at the well that Jesus revealed Himself (to the Samaritan woman).
Keep letting the Spirit use you in the Name of Christ. Give, give, and give — though make sure before you “empty” yourself that there is more Grace ready for a refill (and no drought)!
That surely comes through prayer, fasting, and Confession.
Heal yourself by healing others. Bless yourself by blessing others. Deliver yourself by delivering those you encounter. Grace heals — and so when it moves through you, it heals you on the way through. It cleanses and revitalizes.
Let God flow like a river. When we confess, we cleanse. When we are clean, our water is good. (When it is not, we sap the strength from others.) Whoever drinks of the water that He gives, said the Lord, “shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4). Notes Maria Vadia, in a book called Break Open Your Wells!, “These ‘rivers’ of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-38) flow out of the ‘wells of salvation’ (Isaiah 12:3) from deep within us. The challenge for us is to keep them flowing, just like rivers do in the natural, so that we can have His life flowing in and through us.
“If the waters don’t flow, they become stagnant and polluted. As Catholics, we have received the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation, but for many of us, our wells have been clogged or dried up with misery: depression, despair, self-centeredness, worry, unbelief, discouragement, fear, anxiety, unforgiveness, anger, resentment, bitterness, pride, self-pity, addiction, compulsion, sin.”
Wow, much debris to clear away that the river may flow.
“The good news,” says Maria, “is that we don’t have to live with our wells clogged or dried. It’s God’s desire that each of His children experience the abundant life that Jesus came to give us (John 10:10). There’s a reason why He gave us His Spirit: so that we could be His witnesses! (Acts 1:8). As we experience His abundant life, His power and His Love in our lives, we must release Him to a dying world.”
The key phrase here is “living water.”
Focus on it these precious remaining Lenten days.
A bit of it flowed from the wound on His side — did water — as He hung on the redeeming Cross.
[resources: Breaking Open Your Wells!]