The Fountain

Well, they came and took the fountain out of our pond and my summer office. You know what that means, right? Yep, winter is nearing and I’ll have to transition indoors. One of these days, I’ll have a winter office a bit further south and enjoy my “summer office” year around. Or, will I? You see, this reminds me of a story associated with our fountain and the grass not always being greener on the other side.

Earlier this season, we were having problems with the fountain. I was rather disappointed as I look forward to spending time in my summer office and the sites and sounds of the backyard. For weeks we continued to cordially follow-up with the POA and pond maintenance business attempting to get the situation resolved. What should have taken only a few days was taking weeks. We were attempting to keep our attitude in check, however, it was beginning to become a bit irritating. You see, I wanted my “summer office” back!

Finally, the day came and the fountain was repaired. The next morning, I woke and went to go sit outside in my office. As a settled in, I thought, something was wrong. Due to the noise of the fountain running, I wasn’t able to hear the birds and other sounds of nature I had grown accustom to over the past few weeks. What once was the soothing sound of running water, had now become a distraction. I had spent all that time wishing the fountain was repaired even to the point of getting irritated that it wasn’t. Then, once it was repaired, it wasn’t as I anticipated or remembered. Where I had started to become comfortable “being still” and “listening to His voice” through the sounds of nature, I was now distracted by the sound of running water.

There are multiple application I could relate with this story of which I am sure you’ve already thought of a few. As eluded toward earlier, for today, let’s simply focus on the thoughts and desires for “greener grass”. How many times do we find ourselves desiring different circumstances than we have today? Or, how much time do we spend worrying about tomorrow? Then, once tomorrow comes, it never looks like what we thought.

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ” (James 4:13-14 ESV)

Yes, we spend far too much time focused on tomorrow and don’t acknowledge the blessing of today. While small, the fact that that fountain was not running for several weeks allowed me to “Be still, and know that He is God” (Psalms 46:10) and hear His voice in a way I hadn’t experienced before.