The woman saith unto Him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. John 4:15
The fog of shame and doubt is starting to lift from (the Woman at the well) Olivia’s mind. She is aware that Jesus cannot be speaking of any ordinary water. She visits Jacob’s well every day, and she must return every day. It quenches her thirst for a while, but she must return. And although the water nourished her physical body, it did nothing for her soul.
Jesus’s words sound too good to be true. What kind of water is this that a person only has to drink once and never thirst again? If what He is saying is true, Olivia wants this water, and it wasn’t lost to her that Jesus said, “the water that I shall give….” The owner of this water is right in front of her, and she is shy about asking for it.
Let’s pause for a moment.
Starting a ministry at a time is more mental than physical. It’s time-consuming and can pull you in and require more and more of your time. So, we are constantly looking for ways to curtail or reduce our time on this end of the project. We need to find a way to use our time better because we sometimes feel that we are all over the place. The busy work of the ministry has taken over, and it’s all we can do to keep our heads above water. Then as we are again surfacing the YouTube world, we come to see an advertisement that seems to be the answer to our prayers. So, what they are offering, we give a try. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t. We had such hopes that we would never have to come to this well again. But we find ourselves being led down a path of enlisting apps and affiliates and joining this and joining that. Now our emails are bombarded with advertisements. We find ourselves just as overwhelmed, maybe even more so, than before we started this journey. But we were too deep to turn around and find our safe harbor, Jesus.
When I wrote my second book and wanted to self-publish, I didn’t know where to begin. I was so overwhelmed, and I spent hours looking at a YouTube promise this and promising that. I had to take something from this site and some from that site and eventually pull it together. It was the marketing piece that threatened to take me under. It just didn’t make sense, and it was taking my time away from formatting my book. I stopped one day and said to the Lord; I can’t do this. I work all day, then as soon as I clock out, I clock into the ministry, working on my book. I was exhausted and didn’t know what to do.
Lord, I need help. The Lord said to me, write, write, write, and let it go. I will do the rest. Now, who writes a book, produces a product, and does not market it? Who puts all their energy and time into something and lets it go…? Well, that is what I did, and I could physically feel the weight of the world lift off my shoulders. I made a decision. I didn’t know how God would market and sell His books. I didn’t know if He would do anything with that book. I had to let it go. It was His story. His talent. His ministry. It was time I learned what it meant to be a faithful steward, and that is what I did. I let it go. The book sold a few copies but nothing that I had hoped. And at times, I would get discouraged and want to jump back into the well of marketing, but Christ would always remind me that He was in charge, and I was to keep my focus on writing.
Not always easy, but I learned to trust His leading. After all, He does know the beginning from the end, and I have no reason not to trust Him. Each time I thought to move ahead of Him, He always sent me a gentle reminder and His grace to empower me to leave it all up to Him.
Until next time....