Lecture 7: Reservoir vs. Canal

A canal simultaneously pours out what it receives. A reservoir waits till it is filled then discharges water without loss to itself. Today, there are many in God’s church that acts like canals. The reservoirs are far too rare. So urgent is the charity of those through whom heavenly doctrine flows that they want to pour it forth to us before they have been filled. They are more ready to speak than to listen, impatient to teach what they have not grasped, and full of presumption to govern others while they know not how to govern themselves. High mountain lakes have one stream out and water level relatively constant throughout the year. How is the water level staying constant in your life? Depletion results in erosion of presence, and results in just going through the motions.

A. Example of High Mountain Lakes

One of the greatest sermons I have ever read is sermon eighteen from Bernard’s Commentary on the Song of Songs. Bernard was actually quite a controversial person then and now. The person who is wise therefore will see his or her life is more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives but the reservoir retains the water until it is full and then charges the overflow without loss to itself.

Bernard continued in saying that they know that there is a curse on the person who allows their own property to degenerate and if you think my opinion worthless then listen to someone who is wiser than me. The fool sits on and comes out with all these feelings at once, but the wise man subdues it and restrains them. Bernard was writing nearly a thousand years ago. Yet, what he is writing is just as relevant now as it ever was. Today, there are many in God’s church who act like canals, the reservoirs are far too rare. So urgent is the charity of those through whom the streams of heavenly doctrine flow to us, if they want to pour it forth before they have been filled. They are more ready to speak than to listen and patient to teach what they have not grasped and full of presumption to govern others while they know now how to govern themselves. May the Lord have mercy on us! Let’s talk about this idea of this reservoir that is mentioned. We will see yet another image that will help us to get a hold on this major construct of reception preceding donation or receiving love for our Lord before kenotic self-giving or kenosis. That is this whole business of a reservoir that Bernard talked about.

One such phenomena that I have seen wherever I have gone mountain climbing, mostly in the Rocky Mountain range of America specifically in New Mexico and Colorado. I have also seen this phenomenon in the Himalayan Mountains in India and anywhere that I have done any king of mountain climbing. I hope to draw a very poor facsimile of a high mountain lake. An artist, I am not! You will need to bear with me. I am talking about a natural high mountain lake where you might see three or four streams flowing into it. There will be a fairly good size amount of water. You might also see literally dozens of small brooks, small fingers of water feeding into the lakes from many different places. Here is the one phenomenon that I have never seen an exception to though I am assured there are exceptions as my own view is so limited. These high mountain lakes always flow out with a single stream. In addition, the level of the water always stays relatively normal the year around in these high mountain crater lakes. You might only see a three or four foot difference between the low water mark which usually comes at the end of September in North America or beginning of October. Then it starts to snow again and the lakes will start to rise again. But throughout the year in these natural high mountain lakes, the water level stays pretty much the same. The issue here is that there is a primary outflow. We can compare this to a vocation or a calling. This is the primary calling of the Lord and the vocation is how I seek to live that out in ministry or in whatever form. We really need to reclaim the fact that being a Christian teacher, mechanic, doctor or whatever; this is one hundred percent ministry. We want people to understand that they are full time ministers of the Gospel called to apply it in every area in which they work.

B. Depletion of Presence

It is this water level and its’ depth, and how that is staying constant. That is the issue; how is that staying constant in your life? Negatively, when the water level starts to go down, it is then called depletion. Depletion, if left unchecked, will result in a complete erosion of presence where anything alive will stop growing in the soil as there is no soil left. There is nothing to give. Depletion will give way to merely going through the motions which at times we have to do, particularly in times of emergency and danger. However, when the majority of life becomes merely going through the motion, then it is going to devolve where there is no water left and therefore there is nothing to give. Then you are truly talking about a full blown crisis where you just can’t do it anymore. It is somewhat common to hear leaders, particularly ministry leaders who will tell others not to be surprised if you don’t find me here next year or whenever. That is a common thing to hear. This is called depletion of presence which leads to erosion which then becomes a crisis. It is then that you have to have some kind of intervention or things will end up in a very bad way. The question then becomes what the Lord wants you to be in terms of these streams of mercy that are flowing into your life, and can you articulate these streams of mercy? What does the Lord use to infuse your heart and your life and your family with his goodness?

C. What are the streams of mercy in your life?

1. Examples

What would you say the number one thing that the Lord uses to infuse his grace and love into your life? For some the Word is the number one thing that infuses God’s grace and love into their lives. Clearly, this has to be a big stream. For others, it is when they see fruitfulness that comes from faithful ministry. To me, this is the ministry of encouragement and conformation; that God is at work. There is the sense of conformation from the fruit that the Lord is growing in and through our cooperative efforts. Clearly, one of the big streams has got to be prayer, the communion with God where I listen and share and receive. Also there is seeing the activity of God at place; showing us that this is real. We see God’s providential care through history and through our own lives. What all of us need to do is say okay, this and this needs to be in place in my life before the goodness of God can flow at a steady level in and through my life. All of this infusing means that his grace needs to be extenuated and given priority in terms of these streams of mercy so that I can live in vocational fidelity which will always work and at some point will be rejoicing in the fruit that God grows and very grateful to be a part of his ongoing kingdom and life.

2. The means of grace by John Wesley

You want to get the classic means of grace and understand that there are things that bring goodness into our lives. It could be sewing or cooking which by the way, my wife does and I’m very grateful for that. It could be working with your hands or being out in nature. The Lord has created you and you are a unique person. He has given you very distinct ways in which he fills you with his goodness. The point is; are you allowing that goodness to come about? In one of John Wesley’s sermon, he wrote on a major theological category called the means of grace. He was referring to all these streams the Lord uses to bring his love and his grace into our lives. He says, by means of grace I understand as outward signs, words or actions ordained of God and appointed for this end to be the ordinary channels whereby God might convey to us: preventing, justifying and sanctifying grace. Now, preventing grace that draws us to the Lord; this is the magnetism of God’s love. This magnetism is the way he uses to draw us to him and prevent us from going eschew that we don’t come back. This means that he has instituted things that Jesus gave us; these are his examples, both private and public prayer where a person is praying one on one with the Lord or praying with a group of people. If you go into Wesley’s chapel in London today and the flat that he lived in is still there and restored. You will see a tiny room which was added onto this five story flat. It wasn’t much bigger than a closet. There was a place to kneel where Wesley knelt down to pray. He got up at four in the morning to pray. He had the Scriptures along beside him. The early Methodists called the room the power house of Methodism. They attributed that room to the revival that swept England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in the 1700s. So we see clearly that the Lord wants us to be in a posture where we are listening to him and praying. He would spend an hour a day doing that. And then searching the Scriptures, reading and hearing and mediating on the Word; this was a big stream coming in. It is allowing this word to be infused into my life. I am not trying to be a master of it but I am trying to let it be a master of me.

We certainly want to do everything we can to enhance our study and our knowledge of this word. We ultimately want it to tame us in order to transform our own lives. So we have the Word and we have prayer and we also have the Lord’s Supper. He was insistent that this took place on a regular basis. The Lord instituted this himself the night before he died. This is part of what we have been given. Jesus added fasting. Wesley fasted in the historic model of the church which was to fast on Fridays. You would fast from Thursday evening to 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon. Why 3 p.m.? That is when Jesus died. It also happened to be English high tea time as well. Now by Christian conference, this is where I meet together with others and no longer doing a solo leadership in ministry. Solo leadership usually ends putting us in a ditch. Christian conferencing is following the example of Christ. He taught the masses, but trained and disciple the few. He put those few in a community and they did life together and that is what we are called to do. There are works of mercy, doing good to the body and soul. And doing good to the household of faith, Christians. So, we are called to invest our lives in some way with those who need the Gospel and be very intentional about that. This is balancing the means of grace in your life. I came across a person who had never fasted in his life and so he decides to do this and goes into a five day fast. He finds himself down in an abandoned coal mine in Western Pennsylvania and he collapses. So, any time we teach on fasting, we need to qualify and help people to understand what we are talking about. I am living life with others which is intentional and not casual. You see in Christian renewal movements, this is always part of the renewal movement. I have ministered with people of extreme wealth but yet the most spiritual poor people that I had ever met in my life.

3. How are the Streams Flowing in Your life?

There are all sorts of means of grace: jogging, walking, playing with the dogs, being with children; these are all sorts of means of grace. These are things that bring life into us. Here is the crucial question; how are the streams flowing in your life? What is the level of the lake in your life?

4. Illustration of the Big Rocks

One such illustration from perhaps a science class, it is called the illustration of the big rocks. A science teacher brought her high school class together in the lab. She had several huge class beakers upon her desk. One beaker has just a few large rocks in it, filled all the way to the top. Another glass beaker had gravel, smaller rocks and gravel. Another glass beaker had sand and yet another glass beaker was filled mostly with water. The teacher looked at her students and said how many of you think we can get all of these beakers into one container? Nobody answered. So, she slowly took the gravel putting them on top of the bigger rocks. What about the sand and the water? Can I get both of them into the same beaker? The students didn’t think that she could. So she takes the sand and slower puts it into with the rocks along with a little water slower putting it all in the beaker along with the gravel and larger rocks. So, before you know it, all of it is in that beaker. She then told the students that none of this would have happened if I hadn’t put the large rocks in first. So in applying this to our ministry, anytime you go into to any type of ministry for Christ no matter what the situation is, you are going to be pulled by a thousand different demands. There will be lots of gravel, sand, rocks etc. Much of this will come internally in our lives. You will think that this is what is expected of me.

Here is the key; nobody will make it long if you focus on the little rocks or on the little details. You will miss out completely. When the big rocks come first, you can handle the heavy demands of ministry but when you allow the heavy demands of ministry, all the side things to lead you and leave out the big rocks, depletion sets in. You could live in a depleted state for a long time but sooner or later erosion happens and you can no longer be present for the people you are called to serve. This leads to a full blown crisis. If I can get seminary students to do one thing, to not only articulate the few big rocks but to know what it is going to look like to put it in place in their lives. I have been in ministry enough to know that some primarily big rocks are going to have to be in place. There has got to be these big rocks around my relationships with the Lord and around my relationship with others.

5. Example of Big Rocks

These things have to be dispositional. When my son was younger, I would take him mountain climbing in wilderness area in southwest Colorado. I would pull him out of school in the autumn before the big snows hit. I wanted to teach him how to survive in the wilderness in terms of navigation, following maps, following a compass, all of this. We would camp out and after a week he didn’t even want to go home again. He said to me, ‘let’s just live here!’ I told them that the snow would eventually be some fifty feet where we were camping and so we had to go home. He was only seven years old at the time and proudly proclaiming that he hadn’t brushed his teeth or changed his underwear in over a week! So, disposition is doing what you love. Nobody tells you to do these things and when you don’t do it, you know that there is some deeply missing from your life. These things become a priority in your life. Dispositional living is freedom and it says that these are the big rocks that the Lord wants me to implement on a daily basis. Christian disposition says that this is what I am doing to respond to the love of God and this is what I have to have in place for my life to make sense.

After five years of ministry, I wanted out; after five years of serving as a pastor I looked around and said to myself, you have got to be kidding! Nobody can do this; I had put my own self in a ditch and had no one to blame but myself. I told the Lord that I would give him one more chance! In making that transition, I knew that I had to get alone with God every day. What I would do, is literally walk to the church so that the farmers and rangers would not see my car there because they would be out earlier than I would be and they would stop to visit. I would not only walk to church but would lock myself in and went down into an inner room where they couldn’t see the light. I knew that I had to do that to survive. I had to spend time with God, reading his Word and reading classic Christian literature. I did that for two years and it became a disposition, a way of living. In this Christian life of ministry, we are always asking these key questions, what are your primary means of grace; is it prayer? Is it the Word? Is it relationship with others? These re the big rocks! You get the big rocks in and the lake itself stays relatively even. Then God does things that you just never dreamed could or would happen. And as an old person, you get down on your knees and acknowledge the difficult times but acknowledge what God is doing is beyond your understanding. You end in praise and thanksgiving; that is how you want it to end; not walking away angry and upset and negative.

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