The Wellspring

“Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words; wait and hope.” – Alexandre Dumas

The story of the Count of Monte Cristo shows us a man consumed with the details of discouragement in his present circumstances. Edmond Dantès is a man who has been utterly wronged and falsely accused, set on a path of vengeance. He is a man who has lost his faith. He is a man who is consumed with the pain of those who have wronged him in his life. He finds himself rotting away in a prison, in the loneliness of fear and anger. In the film adaptation of Dumas’ epic story of betrayal and restoration, we see Dantès voice the ultimate words of discouragement as he shifts his focus from “God will give me justice,” to “I do not believe in God.” He allows his heart to be focused on the unjust, cruel and isolating experiences of his life and relegates God’s hand to ambivalence and his power to impotence.

This road that Dantès finds himself on is one that we tend to be very familiar with in our own lives. When faced with life’s difficulties, betrayals, rocky roads and closed doors, we often retreat inward and revel in the isolation of our hearts amidst the circumstance, instead of relinquishing our hearts to the omnipotent Father. Of course, inside the moment of this interaction, we find that the events which transpire are merely the grounds of the larger spiritual war of our reliance upon the Father and his will. The battle being waged is not that of earthy consequence, not of flesh and blood; it is rather for the very spirit of our hearts and the faith which restores each man’s heart in Christ. As Dantès did, we all experience the times where peril, uncertainty and abandonment enters into our heads and hearts as we look for purpose in our lives. What we must not do in these circumstances is reinterpret God and his desires inside of our experience. We tend to become disillusioned with God when our times are more difficult, and we do not seem to understand the moment of our estrangement. We suffer from a world that defines happiness and joy as isolation from discomfort and suffering. We hear stories of Paul praying and singing in prison, but we do not contextualize the reality of wrongfully being thrown in jail and still knowing the peace in God’s heart enough to praise Him in the circumstance. The joy and peace in our hearts begins to diminish as we relinquish Him to a responder in our lives and experiences. He is neither the great responder to his creation, nor the semi-knowing, sort-of-powerful, partially-present subject to the whim of humanity. He is God Most High. He is dependable because there is no one more powerful, no one who is more knowing, no one who is more ever-present and no thing that can thwart the reality of his will.

Our hearts are the primary place where we find meaning and purpose through the day to day. This is the reality behind Proverbs 4:23 when it suggests, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Our minds are capable of a multitude of thoughts in a single moment or rabbit-trailing our distraction from a single thought to the oblivion of every detail of the inconsequential. We experience this most acutely when we try to focus our hearts upon the Almighty. When we make the effort to pray, to read his word, to experience his presence in the calm, quiet, contemplative silence of interaction; we experience the flood of distractions which come to battle the restoration of our hearts hope and peace. When our anxieties run high, when our loneliness is consuming, when we know the real discouragement of injustice and harm; when we step into the battle of disbelief, we must recall the consistent nature of God. He is just as near to us when we feel his presence as when we feel isolated. He is just as omnipotent when we feel life spinning out of control, as when we feel peace and contentment. His love is the consuming fire of the burning bush even in the winter of our discontent. His sovereignty extends to all creation the same in our despair as when we are filled with hope. The God of the Ages, who makes our feet as the deer, setting our steps firmly in the high places, has given us our hearts to know Him. The wellspring of life holds the truths He has instilled within us about Himself, that we might stay encouraged through the battles that are waged all around us. He has engaged us in the reliance of his goodness as we wait upon Him and hope in the promises He has made. His timing is perfect: He is never late, He is never early. He is not responding to a world gone wild under the curse of sin. He is in complete control and his desire for you to define your life in Him does not change.

As we go forward in our journeys, we guard this precious wellspring of life in our utter dependence upon the provision of the Father. He has not promised that there will be an unfettered ease in our voyage on the good ship earth, but He has promised that He will never leave us, nor forsake us. We also know that he uses the events of our lives to refine and encourage our hearts toward Himself. Whether we go through trials of many kinds or experience the peace of a time of joy, He calls us to define our reality in the heart of who He is and ourselves in the beloved care of the Savior. Guarding the wellspring of life involves staying focused in our hearts on the God of our preservation. Protecting our hearts from the emotional sway of the world – the rampant evil, the circumstances of anxiety and fear, the injustice and horror, the terror and irresponsibility – is essential in our lives in Christ and our ability to show the light of our hope in Him. Knowing his heart frees us from the apprehension of controlling circumstances which are beyond us. Fortunately for us, there is nothing which is beyond Him. Even in the moment where we voice the frustration of Edmond Dantès, “I do not believe…” His power is so great that He takes disbelief and anger, and graciously develops it into fervent love. Who can contend with the Living God? Is there anyone who can usurp Him in his omnipotent sovereignty? Are there actions in our world beyond his control? If it were up to us to construct our preservation, we would fail miserably. We are limited, finite, powerless beings in light of a God who rules and overrules in the lives of men and women. And He is perfect in his provision. He knows the core of man and what they need, as only their Creator is able.

The line in the Count of Monte Cristo which is earth shattering to those who hear its meaning, speaks to the power of a God; who acts on our behalf even amidst our struggle. Dantès never fully grasps the content of the statement in light of his dilemma, but it is a wonderful idea in light of God’s consistency in provision. Dantès reiterates to Abbe Faria in their final few words, as his heart is still filled with the bitterness of being wronged, “I do not believe in God.” And the priest responds to the heart of Dantès’ true dilemma, “It doesn’t matter. He believes in you.” The reality of our struggles in light of a myriad of experiences in this life is that God is not dependent upon his creation for accomplishing his will. When we focus on ourselves and our experiences as the definition of the condition of our lives, we lose sight of the provision of the Father. The wellspring of our lives, focused on the Almighty God, encourages us in his consistency amidst the utter inconsistency which bombards us every day. The truth of the interaction is that most of the time, as we struggle, we purely ask for the struggle to end, focusing on the interaction of our poor experience. The underlying idea in our experiences is that our hearts, in both good and bad experiences, are intended to focus our interaction on the Lord. God did not charge us with interpreting his will or our circumstances within it; we are called to know Him. Our understanding of circumstances matters less than his interaction with our hearts. He is always up to way more than we can ever see of understand anyway. And his timing is perfect according to his plan. He believes in you – even when you do not understand what He is doing in your life. Drawing near and craving to draw near to Him are the outcomes of rightly focusing on the needs of our hearts and refilling the wellspring of our lives. When we guard our hearts in Him, we allow our focus to be on Him. His work is in setting our feet on the high places, on providing sustenance for us in his heart and graciously whispering to our innermost places. We must fall silent and listen to his heart, as we wait for his revelation and find hope in the promises He has given to those who fervently seek Him.

He believes in you, He loves you, and he is calling you to know the filling of your heart in Him. Hear his words to us speak to the core of our being, “I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans for your benefit and not your destruction, plans to give you a future worthy of the hope which sustains you in me. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart and desire me unreservedly in your innermost places, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” Seek Him and find your wellspring overflowing with his life.