Hand-Dug Well

My dad was a do-it-yourself kind of a fellow.  I suppose I picked that up from him.  I like to be independent.  My dad dug our well in Maryland … by hand.  He had help from his two brothers and several church friends.  I remember watching them go down into the darkness.  Dad and a neighbor friend worked for a while cleaning out hand-dug wells for people in our little community.  My dad would carry the windlass in the back of Mr. Cecil’s pickup truck and go down into wells to shore up weak areas and clean out the sediment that had gradually filled into the bottom of the well.  My mother didn’t like the work.  She knew that it was dangerous.  I think that my dad thrived on the danger.  One client had a well that had a bad odor and nasty tasting water.  After going down the well, dad came back up with a drowned animal carcass in the bucket.  He added a cup of bleach to the well water to kill bacteria.  Problem solved.  Hey, do you have problems lurking deep in your life?  Is something not quite right deep inside your soul?  Do you have a rottenness lurking deep down where no one can see?  Jeremiah was all too familiar with Israel’s backsliding.  He reminded them (and us, by proxy) in Jeremiah 26:13, “Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.”  The solution is simple: repent of your evil ways and deeds, and turn back to God in obedience.  God will hear and God will forgive.  Hey, don’t put up with that rottenness one more minute.  Get right with the Lord.  You’ll be glad that you did.