Waterfalls

In our backyard we created our very own, peaceful oasis to enjoy.  It has taken 8 years, lots of planning and even more money, but it is coming along quite nicely.  It has taken even more of my husband’s muscle strength and sweat to get it to where it is.  It’s not done yet, as we seem to think of more and more to do back there, but it’s finally to the point where we can sit back there and really enjoy it.  We have a brick patio area, a rock path leading the other side of the yard and in between them is a large pond and waterfall.  There are koi to throw food to, lots of plants, a bench swing, fire pit and sitting area, and a Japanese sand raking garden also!  We have discovered one major flaw to all this however.  With all our planning and work to create this - we have created work in just keeping it maintained!  Ugh!

We have created a nemesis - so to speak…right in our own backyard!  It’s name is: Waterfall!  The name speaks for itself - water fall…the water is suppose to fall!  Today, as I sit here in my recliner next to the living room windows, the water is trickling, again.  We did our research, bought the best system we found, and have a pump that moves 1400 gallons of water an hour!  That is a pretty powerful pump, but a pump is only as good as the filter it’s attacked to apparently.  The pump draws the pond water up and through a filter basket first, then pushes it on through a huge filtration system, before it is suppose to ‘fall’ down the rocks and back into the pond!  That filter basket apparently doesn’t know that it’s job is to keep the pump from getting clogged, and even though we clean out the basket constantly, some things still get into the pump.  This is the battle that ensues every week - Dale has to disconnect the pump, carry it to the shop and clean it out, then reattach it and prime it - then the water ‘falls’ and doesn’t trickle once again.

Why do we not just get a back hoe and fill the pond in and call it quits?  Simple - we love the sound of water - trickling, falling or otherwise.  Dale doesn’t mind the work (most days) that it takes to keep our oasis maintained, and I don’t, at all, mind watching him do it!  This process has made me stop and think some today, about the work it takes to keep the water flowing strongly.  How often in my life does my filter get clogged up or the pump God placed in me - my heart, stop working the way it should.  All because I choose not to do the maintenance I need to, in order to keep things working right in my life.  Ugh!

If I don’t read my Bible, stay open to God working on my heart, and let the Holy Spirit flow out of me - I feel pretty clogged up!  I may be clogged enough with selfishness, laziness, and apathy that there is only room for the Holy Spirit and God’s love to “trickle” out of me.  Given enough time, as with our waterfall, it eventually gets too bottled up with crud, and it stops flowing all together!  The amount of work it takes to get things flowing right again is tons harder…heart wise, or pond wise.  So wouldn’t it be easier to just do the maintenance consistently?  I think so.

Proverbs 4:23... “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”