Don't Dam It! Let It Flow!
I grew up in the high desert of Northwestern New Mexico. The summers there are hot and dry. In Spring the rains come and the dry river beds are filled with the sound of cool rushing water. Delicately beautiful flowers briefly explode into view across the harsh desert landscape. But the rivers are soon dry again and the flowers are replaced by cracked and dusty soil.
This arid region has a long violent history of migrating groups of people taking the prime watering holes away from one other. I'm not sure who was there prior to the Anasazi but they spread across the land and prospered for a few centuries in a civilization that was technologically comparable to Europe of the time. Then along came roving warrior tribes, drought, and then Coronado. Soon the Anasazii were history.
In the late 1800's the most recent group to acquire the land were settlers and ranchers that built small dams in the dry river beds to capture some of the spring run-off. The resulting ponds provided water through the hot summer for their animals and gardens. Of course this idea was not new to the area. The great Anasazi civilization built networks of dams and channels in many of the same canyons for the same reasons thousands of years earlier.
The same fate has befallen the rancher's dams that doomed the Anasazi's. As the Spring rain rushes down the canyon, debris and silt is carried along. When the water is trapped the debris and silt settles out and over time fills the reservoir. As time passes, the dam becomes clogged and holds less and less water. Eventually it becomes a dangerous mud hole that traps thirsty animals. Then finally the Spring floods rush over the top and washes the dam away.
In the desert water is valued above all else. God wants us to value Him above all else. As we first come into relationship with God the sense of forgiveness is like rushing water in the desert. But we soon build dams that become clogged with the debris of unforgiveness that muddies the water. We wonder what happened to the refreshing and find ourselves mired in a dangerous bog.
Just like the early settlers and ranchers we fiercely defend our stagnant pools of unforgiveness. Unlike the seasonal rains of the desert, God has given us rivers of living water that are designed to flow continually from us. The dams that we have built and the debris that we have collected seriously impede the flow.
We struggle with forgiveness because it costs us so much pride to give it. Sometimes we can not find it in ourselves to forgive. But forgiveness is not ours to withhold. Forgiveness can not be earned; it is a gift that can only be given and received. We did not, do not and will never deserve Gods forgiveness. On our very best day we fall far short of God's righteousness.
Forgiveness is one aspect of God's gift of grace. Forgiving others and yourself clears the debris and allows the rivers of living waters to flow. Freely we have received, freely we should give.
Without hope, lost in the shadows of despair,
Like the burst of morning aft' a long night,
His radiance brought peace surging through me.
His gift of grace is beyond what I can pay.
Freely He gave, freely I have received.
All God has given I must give away.
The Spirit of Christ within me resides.
Power beyond measure yearning to fly.
But only as I share does He energize.
Neil
