Kingdom Harbor

We just celebrated another “Hope on the Hill” event, which is our end of the summer Super Slip ‘n Slide church potluck and neighborhood outreach hosted at our home. This year was extra special as we had 30+ people drive out from Brookdale Covenant Church to experience this Apple Garden Road tradition.

The evening included a short worship service under the oak tree, followed by much fun and fellowship, including the 200 ft slip & slide. I provided some live musical entertainment in the background in between mingling with friends and neighbors.

One highlight was watching Juliana from Brookdale capture some moments with her water colors and paintbrush in her lawn chair (see below), and I shared the following short reflection on our theme for the night.

The Well That Never Runs Dry

When we lived in town, our water bill would sometimes skyrocket. I remember one disastrous trip when we left for a week and a toilet kept running. The bill was awful. That kind of experience trains you to think in scarcity, to just use what you need, maybe even be stingy.

Then we moved out of town onto three acres and discovered the gift of well water, drawing from an aquifer, a river that never runs dry and costs us nothing. Our whole attitude about water changed. Suddenly, we didn’t worry about how much we used. We knew there would be enough.

That’s a good thing because for years now, we’ve hosted an end-of-summer Slip & Slide party. We invite the whole neighborhood and the church, and turn on the hose for hours. It’s a yearly reminder of gratitude, not bills.

Spiritually, I think about how many of us approach God with just enough to get by. But Jesus says, “I am the living water.” In John 4, after his encounter with the Samaritan woman, she leaves her bucket at the well, a small but profound sign of moving from scarcity to abundance. Jesus promises a wellspring within us, a source that never runs dry.

At the end of the Book of Revelation, we get a picture of the new Jerusalem with a main street, and down the center flows the river of life. Fruit trees grow abundantly along its banks. This has special meaning for our church–MainStreet Covenant–as we long to be a people, collectively and individually, who have the river of life flowing through the center of everything we do and all that we are.

This points to our mission as well. A dry and thirsty world is desperately waiting for God‘s people, his church, to become that life-giving stream flowing through our particular communities, making things grow all around us.

So here’s the question: Are you dragging a bucket to church, trying to stretch a few sips through the week, or are you letting Christ plant that living spring inside you, carrying you like a river current rather than a trickle to survive on? That’s the invitation: come to the water without charge, to the lavish banquet of the Lord, to life that overflows.

“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”

-Revelation 22:17