A Canyon Carved

I had the chance last Saturday to visit the tourist spot Canyon Gorge for a day hike away from Austin. Eleven years ago it was the site of a flood of thousands of cubic feet per minute of rushing water that tore up and washed away everything in its path. Enough water rushed through the gorge to fill Ladybird Lake (for you Austinites) 75 times. Trees and boulders were  tossed and carried like twigs and pebbles. I was  reminded of my visit to Sendai, Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami where I saw first-hand what a wall of water makes of a city.

Tossed boulders and bare rock from the massive flood of 2002.

No wonder Noah escaped alone with his family in the ark. Nothing is untouched by a flood. The ark in Genesis preserved life on earth and saved godly Noah by separating him to God and a new age. The namesake of this blog is that very life-preserver, which is a type of Christ and the church.

Water was the medium through which the saving was accomplished. The ark saved Noah and his family from God’s judgment, the destruction of the world by the flood. But the water saved them from the corrupted generation and separated them unto a new age, just as the water of the Red Sea did for the children of Israel (Exo. 14:22, 29; 1 Cor. 10:1-2) and the water of baptism for the New Testament believers (v. 21). -1 Pet 3:20, footnote 3, Recovery Version of the Bible

The gorge left by the flood of 2002 is an impressive, local reminder of the judgment of a flood upon dry land. It has been 11 years since and the spot is federally owned and only accessible by guided tour, but what remains still testifies to the power of water and the tenacity of life to rise again, a theme I mentioned in a recent post on fire bringing forth new growth.

How We Grow

Every morning there is dew on the grass behind my apartment.

The dew is there because overnight the air temperature dropped to a point where it couldn’t hold its moisture and so little dew drops distilled onto the blades of grass in the wee hours of the morning.

When the sun comes up and I get up it’s still there. On most days I don’t notice the dew. Yet it is there all the same, glistening quietly in the morning sunlight and soaking into the ground to refresh the grass. Often, the sun rises and the dew is forgotten and gone: another day has begun. It’s just part of the process of life.

But every once in a while there is a day when the morning is uncannily dark, and cumulonimbus clouds gather above. There’s a Texas thunderstorm brewing.

Things seem to change before the rain comes. The animals know it’s coming. Then at a certain point, if you’re outside, you’ll feel your first raindrop. A few staccato drops will hit, then it gets more steady. Then a shower has started. That’s when you head inside or get drenched.

Texas holds half of the world’s records for the most rainfall in 48 hours.

A heavy thunderstorm here is a crisis. There are flash floods, power outages,and more accidents on the highways.

Process and Crisis

The story of Texas weather illustrates a principle apparent in nature: life grows by process and crisis.

Life is carried on through long periods of relative calm (process) punctuated by sudden and drastic events (crisis). Think dew and downpour.

Consider some other examples of life occuring through process and crisis:

• In botany, plants photosynthesize and grow year-round but only bloom for a short season. There’s even an agave plant that only blooms once in a quarter-century.
• In academia, a semester course has many days of lecture but only one day of final examination.
• In childbirth, an infant grows quietly for nine months inside its mother’s womb until the crisis of delivery.
• Jesus lived for thirty years as an unknown carpenter in Galilee. Day in and day out he worked to support his family. Then when the time was right, He left carpentry and went to John to be baptized in the Jordan River. That was a crisis.

Our growth in the Christian life is the same. We grow by process and crisis.

The beginning – like our physical birth – is a crisis. We are born again (John 3:6) when we believe into Christ and receive His Spirit. That is regeneration.

When the Lord returns there will be another crisis.

“For just as the lightning comes forth from the east and shines to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” -Matt. 24:27

Glorification also is a crisis.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…we will be changed.” -1 Cor. 15:52

Our daily life is not one crisis after another, however. That would look like the beginning of Job.

No, our days are typically filled with small events that we hardly remember. But during these normal days if we receive the Lord’s speaking like dew, His gentle,  divine dispensing will water us, and we will grow day-by-day (Deut. 32:2). It’s good to learn to appreciate these normal days, and be thankful for them.

Then when we get the heavy showers we will grow at an accelerated pace.

The Economy of the Trinity (2)

I recently discussed the Trinity Aquifer economy as it parallels the Divine Trinity’s economy. I wasn’t the first to say that a fountain, a spring, and flowing water are a picture of the Triune God. Even in the Old Testament God is likened to a spring of salvation:

 “Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation, and you will say in that day, Give thanks to Jehovah; call upon His name! Make His deeds known among the peoples; Remind them that His name is exalted.” -Isa. 12:3-4

In this post I’ll address two further points on the Texas water economy as it relates to the Divine Economy.

When Wells Run Dry

“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” -John 7:37

The population of Texas is estimated to double in the next fifty years. Currently there are around 25 million people in Texas. What’s the problem with another 25 million moving in? There’s not enough water for all of us.

The two-and-a-half million residents of the Texas Hill Country feel the issue perhaps most poignantly. There simply is not enough water in the Hill Country’s aquifer systems to support another 2.5 million mouths.

The issue isn’t helped by the state government, and it’s not hard to see why. Imagine that you made a dinner for seven friends but then fourteen came to eat. Who could you send away? This is the major issue facing state legislators today. In a global recession nobody wants to turn potential economic development away. In fact, Texas’ recent immunity to the housing bubble crash is in large part due to its friendly history toward new development. But more immigrants mean more drinking straws, and more straws in the ground mean the aquifer will be taxed until it’s drawn dry. Project forward fifty years and the Hill Country – with its live oaks, junipers, and rustic charm – will all but dry up. Check out this video, which is also on my last post, for an explanation of the limited water resource of central Texas.

For me, Texas’ diminishing water supply paints a clear picture: everything in human life runs out. Every earthly joy runs out. Every natural love fails. Eventually, every man dies. Man, who was made with an eternal longing in his heart, is subject to an existence leading to death. The only recourse of hope to such an oppressive fate is with God. When all a person’s wells dry up they need another source from which to draw. The Bible says that this source is from Jesus Christ alone.

“Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water gushing up into eternal life.” -John 4:13-14

Becoming Stewards of the Divine Economy

But I need to go on. Just as Texas legislators are exercising prudence to make a water conservation plan to ensure their state’s vitality throughout the next fifty years, I have been aware recently of the need for  faithfulness and prudence in the stewardship of the Divine Economy. I’d like to end this post with two practical points on carrying out our stewardship:

1. In order to carry out our stewardship, we need to utilize the time we have on earth. For this God needs to teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psa. 90:12).

2. In order to carry out our stewardship, we need to be unhindered by other preoccupations. If we have tasted of the water that Jesus gives us, we will eventually drop our preoccupations and will testify of Jesus to those we know.  -John 4:28-29 (quoted below)

“Then the woman left her waterpot and went away into the city, and said to the people, Come, see a man who told me all that I have done. Is this not the Christ?”

The Economy of the Trinity

A few miles north of Wimberley, Texas, is a beautiful spring from the underground Trinity Aquifer called Jacob’s Well. Thousands of years ago Native Americans drank from it. When European settlers arrived, they named it Jacob’s well after the remarkable similarities to the Biblical well in John 4. Perhaps its ebullient waters reminded them of “water gushing up into eternal life” (John 4:14).  To this day tourists seek its clear waters for swimming and even diving. Jacob’s well is actually the mouth of Texas’ largest underwater cave. Divers have explored the cave over one hundred feet down and one mile in length. Its waters spring up at the mouth of the cave in one of the few artesian wells of the Trinity Aquifer.

If you go to Jacob’s Well you’ll see from the ripples on the surface of the water that there is a constant flow upwards. Water that has been underground for hundreds of years, seeping slowly through the Glen Rose and Travis Peak limestone formations some 1000 feet underground, is now reaching the surface. While it’s been down there the limestone aquifer has even filtered the water of impurities. The aquifer can do this because it’s actually very porous – like a giant underground rock sponge. By passing through the tiny holes in the porous rock the water loses its sediment and debris. What comes up is so clear it almost seems drinkable.

But we don’t drink water from Jacob’s Well anymore. Modern technology has made that unnecessary. Instead, let me describe a very likely scenario. Just a few miles away, a farmer drills a well into the same water source that feeds Jacob’s Well. He does not rely on an Artesian well to get his water; he pumps it from the aquifer directly into his home and his cattle troughs. He appropriates the water and uses it for his household. In other words, he becomes a steward of the water. In order to do this lawfully he will need to register his well with the local authority because there is an economy of water distribution.

The economy of the Trinity Aquifer water is an administrative arrangement made by the Texas Water Development Board to oversee the dispensing of the water in the aquifer to the people of Hays and nearby counties. Both private wells and public water facilities are governed by this arrangement so as to ensure everyone gets to drink water and stay healthy.

The Trinity Fulfills the Namesake

The economy of the Trinity Aquifer is strikingly similar to another Trinity’s economy in two ways.

First, the economy of the Divine Trinity is an administrative arrangement made by God the Father, carried out in His Son, and applied by the Spirit to dispense His being into His chosen people. His economy is that His people “drink” the living water to receive and live out eternal life (1 Tim. 1:4, Eph. 1:9, John 4:14)

God, who created the universe such that  it would display his divine characteristics (Rom. 1:20), chose to portray Himself as water so we could grasp our daily need for Him and His incredible availability to us. To drink of God as the living water is an innate human need and can be sensed just as thirst can. Just as available as water, God can be received by anyone. I would encourage you, if you haven’t drunk of God today, to read the section in the Gospel of John about Jacob’s well (John 4:1-42). Then in your reading pray to receive the words in spirit. In this way you’ll drink the living water that gushes up unto eternal life.

Second, God’s economy relies on those who would be stewards of His resources, those whom Paul calls ” stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). In order for God to dispense Himself into His people, He needs those who would come to Him, dig a well, and draw living water from Him to have the supply to share with those under their care. Then God’s people will be watered, and God’s kingdom on earth will be sustained (Psalm 72:6).