Old Wells by Lisa Burkhardt Worley

Balance.

That’s important to me. If I can’t work out, take a walk or even have time to shop during the week, I become like a caged lion, pacing back and forth, desperate for a quick escape. And that’s the way I felt by Wednesday. The workload was too much. There were no breaks. I was once again wondering if I was really supposed to be in school—especially at my age.

But God is always so good to provide encouragement, right when we need it.

Our chapel speaker at school on Wednesday was a professional counselor, Dr. Cassie Reid, and I felt like she was speaking directly to me, but maybe this is for you as well. She said, “Some of you may be feeling like you want to quit—to sit down short of your goal.” Yes. But then she said, “If we want to see what we’ve never seen, we have to do what we’ve never done.” “The call on your life is bigger than you.” I chewed on those statements.

The latest path of Messianic Studies is certainly a road I had never been down before. With a Jewish father, who died before I was born, I did not grow up practicing Judaism, and had very little knowledge of what it meant to be Jewish. This field of study was uncharted territory.

Then this was the capper as she began to share prophecy about the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, where I’m planted. “God is re-digging old wells. Old wells are coming back to life.” According to Julye Bidmead, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Chapman University, in the Bible, divine revelation occurred at wells “as water is life giving and symbolizes creating and new beginnings.”

New beginnings. Hmm.

When I thought of old wells in Dallas, my mind immediately went back to my great-great grandfather Abram Weaver, one of the early pastors at First Baptist Church in Dallas. In the 1800’s, Pastor Weaver was cutting edge when it came to women. In his itinerant journeys, one of his stops was as President of the “Rockford Female Seminary” in Rockford, North Carolina. Meanwhile, at the dedication of the first sanctuary building at First Baptist Dallas he said, “The women of our church must be reckoned with.” Knowing what I know about him, this statement meant that women needed to have more responsibility in the church. He paved the way for women in ministry, and now the well that he dug back in 1872 was being unearthed, as I am the first person in his lineage to pursue a life serving God. In addition to serving women through Pearls of Promise, I am also exploring how I can make difference, as a woman, in this area of Messianic Judaism.

So I’m hanging in there in a new place —but an old well—and seeing that once again I am not alone on this journey. What old well is God digging up in your life?

“And remember, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

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I hope you will join me for for our monthly online “POP Chat” on Wednesday, April 28th at 6:30 pm. when I will be sharing the message “Why Nothing is Impossible with God.” Email info@pearlsofpromiseministries.com for the link.