Be A Reservoir Not A Canal

I was refreshed and challenged by a recent post from Jonathan Dodson, who pastors a church in Austin, Texas. If you’re like me, you function more like a canal and less like a reservoir. Dodson points out, that this is detrimental to our spiritual well being as well as our ability to effectively lead. We have become masters at “running on empty” when we could be perpetually “running on a full tank.” I hope this encourages and convicts you as much as it did me.

In a past-paced society which is prone to success more than solitude, this excerpt from Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) pinpoints why it is so important that we slow down.

If you are wise therefore you will show yourself a reservoir and not a canal. For a canal pours out as fast as it takes in; but a reservoir waits till it is full before it over flows, and so communicates its surplus…We have all too few such reservoirs in the Church at present, thought we have canals in plenty. – Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on Song of Songs

Be a Reservoir Not a Canal

Rest, reflection, and extended times of listening to God are essential to blessing, serving, and honoring others. People who do not slow down to fill up, never really live, work, or minister out of a deep reservoir of grace. If we’re honest, many of us are more like a canal. We dispense advice, counsel, creativity, labor, and parenting as soon as it arrives in our minds. Our half-formed notions run from our heads and out of our mouths with little reflection at all. When the flow dries up, we trudge on generating sludge that drips out in complaining, bitterness, cynicism and despair. A canal never fills up; it just runs out and eventually runs dry. A reservoir, however, fills up and flows out.

We Have Too Few Reservoirs in the Church

“We have too few reservoirs in the Church.” A ten century old stinging critique. I long to counsel, teach, preach, parent, and live out of deep wells of grace, but sometimes life and ministry cause them to dry up more quickly than others. Bernard reminds me that in times of dryness, it is all the more necessary to run our cups back under the waterfall of God’s fountain of never-ending grace.

To bully on without a reservoir is not only foolish but sinful. It is a subtle, but deep declaration that all we need is Self, and that God, should he play a part in our day, is privileged to do so. This is an act of self-worship, a gross heresy that flies in the face of the gospel. Fortunately the gospel of grace is big enough for this. Out of his great love God may press our nose into our odorous behavior, not to shame us, but to lead us into pastures that are green with repentance and flush with joy, to lead us by streams of living water, where once again we can be awakened to God’s deeply satisfying presence. Repentance will be necessary to escape the run-off of a canal lived life.

A Reservoir Waits Til it Overflows

Bernard reminds us that we know a reservoir by its overflowing. Pastors, if we are to speak, work, write, teach, counsel, and preach with depth, we must wait until our reservoir is full. Waiting over God’s Word and in prayer until our affections, thoughts, and desires are flooding with grace and wisdom. For me, this is a daily if not more frequent necessity. My health and the vitality of those I lead depend on it–an overflow of grace. Lord, make us reservoirs not canals!

Be A Reservoir Not A Canal

I was refreshed and challenged by a recent post from Jonathan Dodson, who pastors a church in Austin, Texas. If you’re like me, you function more like a canal and less like a reservoir. Dodson points out, that this is detrimental to our spiritual well being as well as our ability to effectively lead. We have become masters at “running on empty” when we could be perpetually “running on a full tank.” I hope this encourages and convicts you as much as it did me.

In a past-paced society which is prone to success more than solitude, this excerpt from Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) pinpoints why it is so important that we slow down.

If you are wise therefore you will show yourself a reservoir and not a canal. For a canal pours out as fast as it takes in; but a reservoir waits till it is full before it over flows, and so communicates its surplus…We have all too few such reservoirs in the Church at present, thought we have canals in plenty. – Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on Song of Songs

Be a Reservoir Not a Canal

We Have Too Few Reservoirs in the Church

A Reservoir Waits Til it Overflows

Re-Newed Focus for the New Year

This morning, I was reworking a promotional card that Grace Hill Church will be sending out in 2011 to new residents of Springfield. As I thought about what I might write that would describe the heart of Grace Hill Church, I came up with the following:

“At Grace Hill, we believe that it’s not enough for us to be a church with a mission. We must be a church that is on mission. The gospel doesn’t just save us from our sin but it saves us to love God, our neighbor and our city. The gospel reorients our life and our loves so that we become more and more like Christ, which is to become more human, not less.”

As I reflect on these four sentences, my prayer is that these words would not only resonate with the readers, but more importantly, that they would resonate with us as a church, so that these don’t remain just principles but practices. If there were ever proof that we need the gospel daily, these four sentences prove it.

Re-Newed Focus for the New Year

Asking For The Impossible This Christmas

I love the songs of Christmas that Luke records for us in chapters 1 through 3. This Sunday at Grace Hill we are looking at Zechariah’s song in Luke 1:68-79. The lead up to this song is that he and his wife, Elizabeth, were some of God’s most faithful servants and yet Elizabeth had been denied the one thing that most women of her day longed for and were judged for … children. Luke makes it a point to tell the reader that, like Abraham and Sarah, they were well-advanced in their years, i.e., past child-conceiving, when Gabriel shows up to tell Zechariah that he is going to be a daddy. The very God who had sovereignly and wisely closed up Elizabeth’s womb was going to open it at this most illogical and il-biological (made up word). Gabriel tells Zechariah that “your prayer has been heard.” The implication of Gabriel proclamation (“your prayer has been heard”) is that Zechariah and Elizabeth have continued to pray for a child long after it was possible to conceive. Their enduring prayer life amazes me because I have the endurance of a hundred-yard dasher when it comes to prayer and they seem to have the endurance of an ironman triathlon. I don’t believe that they prayed God down so that he relented and gave them what they asked for, but through their prayers, God brought to fruition his good, wise and sovereign will at the right time.

Asking For The Impossible This Christmas

A double magnification

We start a four-week series this Sunday for Advent and we’ll be looking at the Songs of Christmas. The first song we will look at is The Magnificat, which is recorded in Luke 1:46-55. The song is called The Magnificat, because it describes Mary’s act of magnifying (magnificat is Latin for magnifies) the Lord for choosing and using someone of her humble position to be the mother of Jesus.

What does it mean to magnify something? We can think of it in terms of a microscope, which is to make big what is small, like bacteria or cells. Another way we can think of it is in terms of a telescope, which is to make small what is large, like planets and galaxies. Mary’s magnification of God is in the telescopic sense of bringing God, who is transcendent and immense, into view. But God also magnifies Mary in the microscopic sense by making big what is small, namely Mary. It is this truth that prompts her to say, “he has looked on (with care) the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations shall call me blessed.” (v. 48) This is the heart of the gospel. God has made much of us who were small and insignificant (microscopically) so that we can also make much of God who is immense (telescopically). Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

SHOCKING THE WORLD…WITH OUR THANKS

This was taken from Covenant Seminary’s EConnect Newsletter. I think it sums up just how hard, but important Thanksgiving is – not just for the Christian but for all who are made in God’s image.

Commercials hum the addictive tunes, refraining “more and more.” It’s a ditty we’ve all come to love, drummed out on the counter while thoughts drift to what we’ll have when the sun goes down, tomorrow. But the key turns quickly flat when grace—or holiday traditions—invite us to give thanks. A moment of serious reflection brings forth such a wealth of gratitude that “more” becomes trite, and empty. It can’t be allowed—and so the Black Friday hours grow into Thursday night, asking us to stop being thankful: “For God’s sake…well, at least for the sake of the economy, stop being thankful!” But gratitude can’t be bought off or sold out. And as long as we break—from the frenetic rush of competing tunes—to give thanks, we remember something more human than all the songs of consumption can promise. It shocks the watching world; yes, it shocks them into reflection. It shocks them that we celebrate the song of thanksgiving.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” (Psalm 100:4-5).