By Pamela Thomas
I admit it… I knew when the pool cover blew off before Christmas that I should have put the cover back on. I have a small, decked, above-ground pool that serves me well late at night, after work, on sultry, hot Tulsa nights. I’m NO FAN of the heat. I grew up in Michigan and love cold, invigorating weather.
So now, looking at the water, I knew I had a problem. The water was black and thick with tree limbs and leaves floating on the top. I complained to God. “Really this isn’t fair Lord!” I sighed, “we went from winter to summer this year! There was no time to get ready!” I had no choice. I scrounged around in my “everything” drawer looking for the pool guy’s card from his working on the pool last year - no card! “No problem,” I thought. I will go to Home Depot and rent a sump pump. I will drain out all the water and start again. I stood in line at Home Depot on an early Saturday morning. As I waited, I began texting on my phone since my frustration grew over the whole dirty pool. I looked up and there, in line, was a miracle! The pool guy stood in line right ahead of me!! He agreed to come and help.
He came, placed the pump inside the pool and out went the water…. for a while. He shoveled out branches, leaves and sorry to say, a dead squirrel. Yikes! He power washed the pool and began to fill it. The water hose ran for 24 hours. By the next evening, I looked in the pool, expecting to begin adding chemicals, no water. I had successfully flooded my yard and the neighbors! The power washer had created a hole in the pool liner. Water was flowing in the street, to my neighbors’ lawn and almost everywhere you looked. The coverage was massive.
“That is a lot of water Lord!” I said. “That is a lot of flowing water!” When I heard the word ‘flowing,’ I began to think. The water in the pool was stagnant, filled with debris and death, but the flowing water was moving through the neighborhood, watering lawns and flower beds. This Scripture came to mind from Proverbs 18:4 NKJV:
“The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.”
I thought about the intensity of that Scripture. Did you know that wisdom can flow from your mouth as a brook? It can travel from person to person, place to place, neighbor to neighbor. Your words coupled with wisdom, flowing like a brook. I wanted the flowing wisdom-not the stagnant cesspool.
James 1:5 ERV tells us:
"Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom.”
This time… I asked for the flowing kind!