What Do You Do When the Well Runs Dry?

 July 10, 2017

Ordinary Time – Season of Stability

What do you do when the well runs dry? When you’ve run out of tears, but not out of grief? When you’ve exhausted all possibilities, everything humanly possible?

Do you dig a new well? Try something different or a new approach? Or do you continue in the same well in the hopes that a gusher may be moments away? As they say, it’s always darkest before the dawn. A new revelation may be ready to break forth.

What do you do when the well of prayer runs dry? Do you stick to the tried and true, or do you try something new? I’ve no easy answers. I’ve tried both at different times. Sometimes one method works, sometimes another, sometimes nothing works and you are left in the mud at the bottom of the well crying with Jeremiah. The Israelites grumbled and complained against God and Moses while wandering in the desert, yet God answered their cries despite their unworthiness and brought water out of a rock.

While slaves in Egypt, the Israelites cried out in their pain and suffering to no-one in particular, yet God heard.

There are no tricks to prayer, no easy answers or magical formulas that work in all situations. Sometimes you are just left empty and alone, full of unanswered questions, waiting for God to fill the empty spaces and drench you with the water of compassion. Sometimes there are no answers. Each life has days like this, times, like this. All you can do is wait.

Still the Israelites groaned and cried out because of their slavery. As their cry for release went up to God, he heard their groaning and was mindful of his covenant.     Exodus 2:23-24

This post is part of a series of reflections on the Church year.   click here to follow blog