Surrounded by Water

"Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9)

Picture two boys who ride their bikes to the pool on the hottest day of the summer, up and down the hills, without one thought of bringing water. They swim for hours in an enormous hole of clean cold water, and it never once occurs to them that they will need something to drink for the ride home. And on the way back they nearly collapse. They end up cutting into a farm, finding a black hose lying in the sludge of a cattle barn, and drinking from it like they are drowning, and swearing it is the best water they have ever tasted.

Here is the thing to notice. They were surrounded by water for four hours. They simply never thought to drink any of it.

That is most of us in the work of doing good. We are near the source constantly, close enough to touch it, and we go weary anyway, because being near water is not the same as drinking it. You can spend all day handling the things of God and end the day parched, because proximity is not the same as intake. Weariness is not proof that the well is dry. Often it is proof that you have been standing in the water without once bending to drink. So before you decide you have nothing left to give, ask the simpler question. When did you last actually drink from the source you have been standing in all along?