Digging for Meaning
We have a new puppy, Winston. He bites. Sleeps. Eats. (Does one or two other things.) Oh, and he digs. Winston doesn’t dig casually. He tunnels. Like he’s escaping from prison. It’s compulsive, ferocious, and filthy.
Why does that dog dig so much? I wondered recently. Then it hit me: I’m a digger too—prone to “digging” into myriad things I hope will make me happy. They’re not always even bad things. But when I fixate on finding satisfaction in something apart from God, I become a digger. Digging for meaning apart from God leaves me covered in dirt and longing for something more.
Jeremiah rebuked Israel for being diggers: “They have forsaken me,” God said through the prophet, “and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). God disciplined His people for neglecting to seek Him. They’d dug their own wells in an attempt to quench their deepest thirst. But God reminded them that He alone is the “spring of living water” (v. 13). In John 4, Jesus offered this living water to the woman at the well, who’d also done her share of digging elsewhere (vv. 10-26).
We’re all diggers sometimes. But God graciously offers to replace our fruitless digging with vital fulfillment with His water, which alone satisfies the deep thirst of our souls.
By Adam R. Holz - Bread Ministries
Jeremiah 2:5-13
5 This is what the Lord says:
“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
7 I brought you into a fertile land
to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable.
8 The priests did not ask,
‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
following worthless idols.
9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the Lord.
“And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
send to Kedar[a] and observe closely;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
