Be on the lookout for wells

The Lord reminded me today of Hagar and Ishmael. I asked him to help me see the wells around me.

Remember Hagar, Abraham's Egyptian concubine? After spending most of their lives childless, Sarah was fed up with the promises of God to make their descendants more numerous than the stars. She decided to take things into her own hands (ever done that?), and gave her hand maiden over to Abraham to help speed the process along after decades and decades of waiting to become a mom. As you recall in Genesis 21, she and Abraham celebrated Isaac's 3 years of life. Ishmael put a real damper on the festivities. Sarah became very upset and told Abraham to tell Hagar and Ishmael to hit the road, literally. By now, Ishmael was about 17. Of course, Abraham loved this son very much. He was distraught and told the Lord about his messy dilemma. However, the Lord told Abraham to let them go, to allow Sara's desires to be fulfilled. So Hagar and Ishmael departed on foot with little provision.

Think of it, a single mom with her teenage son trudging off to who knows where with a jug of water and a loaf of bread! Well, all too soon, the enormity of their wilderness surroundings encompassed them and most likely sent them into paralyzing fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the blazing sun that would literally dry them out. Fear of starvation. Fear of the new "life" or death awaiting them. Perhaps they were in shock, never thinking the consequences of Ishmael's ill behavior toward Isaac at his celebration would amount to such tantamount proportions. But much more was involved. In reality, it was the consistent, taunting, upper-handed, negative influence Ishmael was exerting over Isaac that bothered Sarah so much that she told Abraham to get rid of them. Ishmael was introducing behavior into Isaac's young life that would eventually lead him astray in the area of his moral purity, his pursuit of faith, and his concept of killing and death. Potentially, he could have been robbed of his innocence and any future holiness (Rabbi Daniel Lapin). Sarah could tolerate it no longer. The rotten apple had to go.

So here they were wandering in the wilderness. The water and bread were gone. They were feeling the heat. Hagar, thinking that the only recourse was to wait for the end to come, settled Ishmael down under a shade tree while she went off a bow shot away (approximately 1500 feet), not only to leave him to die, but to face her own death. Why in the world did she do this? How could she walk away from her teenage boy and let him die alone? Where was her nurturing motherhood side that would never abandon her son in his and her worst hour?

Nevertheless, she did abandon him. Interestingly enough, it is not the cries of Hagar the Lord acknowledges, but those of Ishmael. Are you impressed with that? I am. The young man's cries went right into God's ears. After all, his name actually given by God Himself, means heard quickly by God, and the Lord responded. I am impressed with God's faithfulness to fulfilling the meaning of Ishmael's name. However, he did not show Ishmael where to go for water. He showed Hagar.

Hagar chose to be swallowed up in the circumstances around her rather than lift her heart to the one who gave her Ishmael in the first place. It appears that Hagar was so upset and blinded by her tears that she never saw the well and probably walked right by it. I am putting myself in her shoes now and seeing that her attitude was undoubtedly one of doom and gloom. She panicked and freaked out. She allowed fear to overwhelm her. Where was her God? Where was the God she had watched Abraham bow the knee to? Did she even know God? Well, if not, now is a good time to get acquainted! So in her state of understandable hysteria or total exhaustion, and/or lack of faith, the well goes unnoticed.

Why didn't the horror of a parched throat and aching stomach drive her to search for the Lord's Hand like one searches for the treasures of darkness in hidden places, which are only discovered when our eyes are trying to find Him? When we seek His face with all of our hearts? When He is acknowledged as our vital necessity as the Amplified calls it. When we admit our brokenness and come-lately dawning of our need for Him. When we come to the end of ourselves, knowing that He is our only hope. When we so long to be highly esteemed by God as Daniel was that we swallow our pride and admit that we are like a wild beast as far as our tainted, limited understanding is, Psalm 73:22. It was after she cried, and after the Lord acknowledged Ishmael's cries, that her eyes were opened to the well that was there all the time.

Then the mercies of God stare her in the face. What a defining moment that must have been when she discovers the life-giving water. With your mind's eye, watch her excitedly fill the skin with the now abundant resource of water. Her hands shake with the realization that there is plenty more where that came from. Water spills all over that skin. She runs to Ishmael. They are not going to die! Their dehydrated bodies are restored to life by the water from the well that was there all the time.

I truly believe there are wells all around us. They spring with eternal hope, signs from the Lord that He is crazy about us. That He is a God of detail and constancy. That He is the resource we need for that particular moment of drought, disbelief, discontent, sin, depression, doom and gloom mentality, negativity, a complaining spirit, brokenness, and the ailment of being human (we're only dust) which quenches our faith, of seeing things only through our eyes, of putting God in a box and believing that 2 and 2 make 4, of looking at the logical outcome, of failing to realize our desperate need of a renewed mind.

Looking for wells requires that we unwire our natural tendencies. Praying that He will help us remember where His blessings have fallen around us. Remembering to recognize those blessings we so easily take for granted. Asking for strength to lift our hearts to the Giver instead of being so caught up with the gift. Opting to WORSHIP Him instead of concentrating on serving Him. Recognizing the barrenness of a busy life. Remembering who God is--He's Majesty, He's royalty--and healthy lifestyle is one of fearing Him. Being open to the fact that He is more interested in what He is doing TO me and IN me rather than through me. Esteeming His opinion of me more than other people's opinion of me or my opinion of myself. Believing what His Word says about how He feels about me. Realizing in Jesus' Name I can renounce and walk away from fear and dread. Deciding to wait on Him instead of manipulating, and trying to fix, and masterplan, and even micromanage my life. Determining not to move before I hear His voice, even at the risk of looking lazy or sluggish or unambitious in the eyes of those around me. Waiting on the Lord is an active state; it is not slackness or laxity. It is a state of expectancy; it takes work to determine to remain in that state or to get back in that state. It is proclaiming my oh so little faith and jumping on in after He has given direction, instead of worrying about looking like a fool and relinquishing the safe route.

I promise you there is not just one well of life-giving water around us that will more than slake our parched souls and cottony-dry throats, resulting from trudging through the desert of stress and toil of life in which we find ourselves. The wells are everywhere. We just need to ask the Lord where they are and be on the lookout for them. I love Psalm 27:14. "Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout (have a heart as big and strong as a tub). Yes, wait for and hope for and EXPECT the Lord." God bless us all as we look ambitiously and expectantly for the wells, drink the life-restoring water they contain, and remember Who they come from.