Digging and digging
Everyday I’m digging
A well that goes nowhere
Yet here I am digging.
Every moment I am digging
Though I find no water
Yet on goes the digging.
Every strength spent digging
Because He said to dig on.
Digging and digging
All the time digging
I couldn’t give up on Him.
Suddenly, it burst forth
A fountain of refreshment
Richer than I could ever earn
Flowing from the same dry well.
I have been digging and digging
While time came and went
Now I am glad I hearkened.
Looking back, sum of that digging
Now pales in the face of my gains
And all I did was dig and dig
Digging and never giving up.
Not long ago, I looked back and it seemed all I had done for the past decade was pay bills and help those God had asked me specifically to. I believe in saving but because of some assignments Abba had given me, it seemed I couldn’t save enough but on this fateful day, as I looked back, gratitude flooded my heart. Before my eyes were people who only God could have discerned and intervened in their situations; lives touched for God, for good; lives changed for the better to God’s glory. It wasn’t a loss at all obeying God and I wasn’t left empty: God blessed me in ways beyond my earnings.
As I looked back, my personal efforts toward saving rolled past; my savings and investments down the years, to which the ones spent would likely have been added, amounted to naught. Investments in properties, fixed deposit, stocks and equities all came to nothing. The values of my well-intended savings and investments continued to depreciate, some gone with the wind along with the principal. However, the ones poured into God ordained investments, particularly in the lives of His people, appreciated. With turning tides and times, it dawned that if I hadn’t obeyed God, I wouldn’t be able to do those same things now – the values are no longer the same. If I had chosen to save them all, depreciation and recession would have robbed me in broad daylight.
Some of these investments in people that I consider as seed were significant, some were not but it wasn’t about how much. It was just that if God wanted it done by me: then it was done no matter the cost. Those opportunities were more about showering on Him my love, my appreciation, and my admiration, which I didn’t know how else they could be conveyed to so great a King that needs nothing from any of us. And every single one went a long way where it is was planted. The joy of seeing lives changed for good, of seeing God expertly behind it all even when they didn’t ask, and knowing that I was part of that success is both incontestable and incomparable.
God stirred up people to show me “extremely unreasonable” favors that didn’t make sense, favors I couldn’t afford or explain. People stood up and stood in for me when I had no idea what was going on. Some of the arrangements seemed weird and embarrassing but God was the Author, working it all for good, without my asking or pushing. In fact, some caused me concerns, like how can I take that and not feel like I am cheating this person? How do I explain this kind of favor? They were too good to be true but they were real, offered wholeheartedly without my asking. One of the cases, God asked me to help someone and it did cost me but guess what? The same person who didn’t appear in any position to ever be of help to me at the time turned out not long after, the very one God used to ferry me through a rough patch.
These encourage me to follow God, to trust Him, to obey Him because He knows what I need better than I can ever figure out. He knows how best to meet my needs and every day I learn, as I live sensitive and obedient even when it is tough, that God always has something so much better than whatever He is asking of us. He never asks what we can’t afford, He often doesn’t ask for what is convenient, and we can never give more than He gives back to us. Don’t let anyone swindle you in the name of God and His work: let God order your steps and your giving. And whatever He asks, go ahead and give, He is a faithful rewarder of them that diligently serve Him: I am a living proof.
Glory!