What’s clogging up your power source?

We are blessed to have a small 2 acre pond on our property.  If you bring plenty of crickets, it’s a great place to relax and catch a few brim. I hear it’s also a good place to chill out and read a good book! There is also a creek that runs across the front of our property that feeds into the pond.

From time to time we have a couple of beavers who decide to take up residency in our pond. Doesn’t sound like much of a problem, but it actually can result in quite a bit of aggravation. One of the first things they like to do to make our pond feel like their home is build a dam where the creek and the pond meet. This stops the water from flowing out of the pond. Below is a picture of one of their dams.

When this happens, Rob goes down each morning and breaks loose the pile of sticks and debris they pile up during the night.  This allows the water to flow freely again.  Without fail, each night the beavers return dragging twigs, leaves, and mud back over to the opening to carefully reconstruct their dam.

One morning I decided to go down to the pond with Rob. As we were walking and talking, I asked him why beavers build dams in the first place.  He said they wanted to have more water in the pond for themselves. As I stoood looking at the pile of debris and how it had stopped the flow of water it made me think about the junk that clogs up the flow of good things in my life.

You know things like pride, selfishness, lack of forgiveness, or jealousy. For years, I convinced myself I didn’t really have a BIG problem with these things. Boy, has God been opening my eyes over the last year! I realized not only did I have a problem, I, like the beaver, had carefully constructed a couple of dams in my own life!

Holding on to quite a few twigs of pride and bitterness, I realized they were hindering the flow of blessings in my life. Not to mention stealing my peace and joy! I had actually held on to unforgiveness in one of my relationships for over 23 years. It wasn’t really obvious to anyone else, but I knew in my heart it was there.  With God’s help, I have since forgiven that person and God has completely restored our relationship.

However, I still have quite a few other dams I work on daily, like pride and selfishness… and sometimes I fail miserably.  Just when I think I have broken free from one of them, I fall right back into a similar pattern in a different area.  Much like the beaver who builds the dam to fulfill his desires, our flesh acts the same way. But the good news is, with God’s help, we can experience victory in these areas!

The above picture is after Rob started breaking some of the junk loose.  As you can see from the picture below, once he is able to get all the debris and junk cleaned out, the water flows freely…just the way it should. It took a little effort on his part to unclog the dam and it takes intentional effort on our part to unclog the dams we build in our own lives.

Are there any dams in your life that need to be torn down?