Broken Cisterns

“Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” ESV Jeremiah 2:12-13

Where were you on September 11? What images come to mind? They aren’t images of this year are they? Probably not, and they are probably not images from last year either. The images that come to mind are the images of September 11, 2001; the day that terror hit home.

I was on the way to an appointment that morning when my assistant called to make sure I knew what was happening. Within just a few minutes I was sitting in a friend’s office watching on television as the second plane slammed into World Trade Center building. Moments later, we all watched in stunned disbelief as one of the buildings came crashing down in a plume of dust. Appalled, shocked, utterly desolate; words cannot adequately describe the emotions of the day. It was a day when you just wanted to quietly hug your loved ones and mourn with the nation.

As part of my job, I traveled to New York just a few weeks later on October 31. As my flight made its approach for a nighttime landing it occurred to me that the tranquility of the lights below and the surrounding darkness betrayed the disquiet and apprehension that I would see up close in the city; and the city did not disappoint me.

New York City was in shock. Prayer stations were set up every few blocks where people (Christians and non-Christians) would stop to try and gain some semblance of spiritual composure. Church doors were open 24/7. Flowers, candles, cards, letters and photographs were placed at make-shift memorials; oft times at the base of a barricade near ground zero. Stench from the smoldering ruins filled the air in lower Manhattan. Grand Central station erected a long line of bulletin boards where people posted pictures and pleas for help finding loved ones who were missing and feared dead. And as I stood next to the famous bronze ‘charging bull’ statue situated near Wall Street, I looked north (on Broadway) into an empty and quiet street. No cars, few people, few words. New York City was in shock.

For New Yorkers, indeed for the nation, nine eleven was a shocking reminder of the frailty and shortness of life. It jolted many folks out of complacency and caused them to reflect on their values. It was a time when many found it easy to distinguish between urgent things and the truly important things in life. It was a time when everyone seemed to unashamedly call on the name of God.

How quickly we forget. As individuals and as a nation it seems we are becoming complacent. Carried away with the urgent matters of the day, we have forgotten the lessons of nine eleven or buried them in our memory as ancient history.

Sadly, sometimes history repeats itself. As individuals and as a nation we are watching an even greater tragedy than nine eleven unfold before us. It is a tragedy so great that even the heavens are appalled, shocked and left feeling utterly desolate. It is the same two part tragedy that was unfolding in Jeremiah’s day. We are forsaking the living God in pursuit of our own recreations. We are exchanging the eternal for the temporary.

In John 4, Jesus tells the woman at the well that the “living water” that He possesses and gives is eternally satisfying but that the water in the earthly well only satisfies temporarily. She responds by saying, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty…”

Now, let me ask you, do you find yourself continually thirsty in your spirit? Is your life filled with one empty pursuit after another? Have you forsaken the living God and exchanged Him for your own recreations?

Our own recreations will never hold eternally satisfying water. Even our boldest pursuits only satisfy for a little while. Then, like water leaking from a broken cistern, all our joy leaks out and we find ourselves empty; thirsty again.

Individually there may be little we can do to thwart another tragedy like nine eleven. But we can each individually avoid the even greater tragedy of forsaking God for our own pursuits. We can respond like the woman at the well and be satisfied with the living water that God provides through faith in Jesus Christ and experience eternal satisfaction in Him.