A couple of weeks ago I ran across a fb status update that concerned me. An old friend of mine from high school was having a tough time and he wrote something to the extent of . . . I thought God never puts more on you than you can bear? Why is everything falling apart in my life? I can’t bear this! I can’t take anymore! . . . My friend apparently felt like his whole world was coming apart . . . as if the ground beneath his feet had collapsed into a sinkhole.
Have you ever experienced this? At some point, all of us have to some degree. We have all gone through seasons in which we struggled to live on solid ground. But what is the cause of this experience, and is it possible to live our entire lives on solid ground?
Gordon MacDonald describes this type of experience as the sinkhole complex in his book, Ordering Your Private World. Sinkholes are caused by underground rivers that dry up, leaving huge open spaces under the earth. Before long, the ground above collapses and swallows whole city blocks. They happen in Florida all the time.
When you fall into the pit, it’s typically because an underground river in your life has dried up, leaving a huge void beneath the ground of your life. You can learn to live on solid ground by identifying your underground rivers and learning to be intentional about feeding their sources on a daily basis. If you do this, the ground beneath your feet will remain solid.
What are those underground rivers?
- Encouragement: You’ve got identify the thing(s) that build you up and strengthen you.
- Your river of encouragement is the source of the knowledge of how well you’re doing, how powerful you are, and how important you are for the kingdom of God.
- When your river of encouragement dries up, you begin to feel like a failure and like you’re inadequate and disqualified in some area of your life.
- But if you stay connected to that river of encouragement, you will never feel these things for more than a moment again, because whenever you feel them, you will reconnect to your river!
- Inspiration: You’ve got to identify the thing(s) that fire you up and excite you.
- Your river of inspiration is the source of your momentum in the moment. It moves you forward in all of your labors with bold enthusiasm and makes you feel powerful!
- When your river of inspiration dries up, you begin to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. While discouragement erodes your character, the absence of inspiration erodes your competence.
- But if you stay connected to that river of inspiration, you will never feel incompetent again! You’ll always feel fresh and alive in all of your endeavors!
- Enjoyment: You’ve got to identify the thing(s) that bring you pleasure and delight.
- Your river of enjoyment is the source of the experience of the value of your life. It is the means by which you savor being alive and revel in the gift of self.
- When your river of enjoyment dries up, you begin to feel like life is worthless, tedious, and tiresome, and the result is apathy.
- But if you stay connected to that river of enjoyment, you will never feel like life is worthless and tedious again! You’ll always look forward to what tomorrow brings, because you know that some form of enjoyment will come with it!
- Intimacy: You’ve got to identify the thing(s) that bring you a sense of belonging and connectedness.
- Your river of intimacy is the source of the experience of oneness. Intimacy is the river of rivers because it causes you to become a river. Through intimacy, you not only receive encouragement, inspiration and enjoyment, but you freely release them into the lives of those you love.
- When your river of intimacy dries up, you begin to feel alone . . . even if you receive encouragement or inspiration (by reading a book, listening to a podcast, etc), you feel empty because there is no one to share them with.
- But if you stay connected to that river of intimacy, you never feel alone. You’ll always feel vitally connected and dearly loved.
Living on solid ground does not mean that you’ll never go through a trial again. In fact, you’ll go through many trials for the rest of your life. But your trials should not have the power to make you feel insecure about your life. Your ground can remain solid beneath your feet, even if the things that you experience above the ground are shaky.
Identify your underground rivers and keep them flowing strong. Do this and you’ll always feel sound and secure.
