Dig Another Well

One of my favorite movies is Finding Nemo, and I love it mostly because of one character, Dory. This little blue fish can’t remember what happened in the last five minutes, but she never lets anything worry her. At one point she sings to her friend when he is about to give up, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

It does matter if you get stuck in a patch of jellyfish, dive into the pitch black depths of the ocean, or nearly get eaten by would-be-vegetarian sharks. If you just keep swimming, you can get anywhere.

My youth minister made the same point when I was in high school, only he said, “Dig another well.” In Genesis, when Isaac was looking for a place to settle in Cannan, the land he had been promised through is father Abraham, he kept running into trouble. He would find a nice place, pitch his tents, and dig a well. Then someone would come along and tell him he couldn’t stay, and Isaac had to move along, find another place, and dig another well.

Doesn’t sound quite right, if that land was promised to him and his offspring. Yet Isaac didn’t complain, didn’t bicker at God or at the people who told him to move on. Instead he picked up his things, got out his shovel, and dug yet another well. He knew that somehow, eventually, things would work out. It might take ten or twenty wells, but if he kept digging, eventually he would find a place he could stay.

It is the same in all our lives. When things work out, we just need to keep going. Give it another try. Keep on swimming. Dig another well. If we trust in God, that doesn’t mean that things are going to be easy or fall into place smoothly. It probably won’t. But God admires persistence. Remember the parable of the widow and the dishonest judge? Jesus told us, basically, to keep hounding Him and show Him we mean business. If you aren’t willing to pursue something through whatever obstacles may come, why should God bother giving it His attention? He’s got more important things to do.

So if at first you don’t succeed, dig another well. I have found this especially to be true in my current job hunt. I have filled out application after application, been to businesses and called on the phone. After a long dry spell, suddenly opportunity rained down. Three different employment opportunities finally lay open before me. But I would never have found them if I didn’t keep at it.

So dig, swim, persevere, and remember that in whatever you are trying to do, continually check to make sure your will lines up with God’s will. Learn the lesson presented to you in every experience, good or bad. Trust that all will be well. Because it will.