“Dripping, Stone, Wears… huh?” I set the card aside, trying to hurry to help my team solve as many of the word jumbles as possible in 5 minutes. When the time was up, I picked up that card again and tried to decipher that last word. As the professor collected the cards, I still couldn’t figure it out. I knew it would bug me until I did.
As I drove down the interstate on my way home, I started rearranging the letters… first in my head, and then out loud. About halfway home, it hit me… CONSTANT!! That was it! Constant dripping wears [away] stone! I grinned to myself as I finished my trip home.
But… it got me to thinking about the truth of that statement, and all the analogies that could be made to it. The one that came to mind the most often was this: The cares of this life are like that constant dripping; they wear at you and on you until, unless you’ve done something to counteract it, you become just a sliver of your former self… especially spiritually. The devil doesn’t always come rushing in like a flood to steal away the good things God has given you. He tends to work at you one drip at a time.
But then, I got to thinking some more. Back in January, I’d visited some caves. During the tour of the caves, we’d been told that the big open spaces had been formed by the water eating away the limestone… but the dripping water inside the cave also left behind deposits that formed interesting and amazing formations. So, while dripping water can wear away stone, dripping water can also build up stone. How might this apply spiritually? Well, as those cares of life wear away the spiritual good things God has given, they can also build up a barrier between you and God in other areas of your spirit.
The best way to keep this all from happening is to stop the dripping. The Bible tells us that we can cast all those cares on God. He can just put out his hands and catch those drops and divert it all away. The cares of life don’t have to wear us down. They don’t have to build barriers between us and God. Let him handle them.
I think this probably stuck with me the most because life’s been wearing me out lately. Being sick (at the beginning of this month), combined with school and work and the various responsibilities of life has just left me tired, and at times feeling a bit overwhelmed. There have been a few days lately when I would have welcomed a rock I could crawl under and sleep for about 10 years. When these thoughts came, I realized it was just God’s way of reminding me that I don’t have to try to carry it all myself. He can handle it, if I’ll just let him. And you know what? I think I will…
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