Digging Ditches Part 2

"Thus saith the Lord: Make this valley full of ditches."
2 Kings 3: 16

**Excerpts from Digging Ditches by Helen Roseveare.  For background see my last post.**

The Lord started to re-focus my heart from the ever-deep desire to live on the mountain-tops, to the realization that God's work is mostly done in the valleys.


So the next stage of my life's journey was established on that promise.  That it might not be easy, that there will be heartaches and deep problems on route, I was well aware.  He did not promise me a bed of roses without thorns.  But He did promise me that others would be blessed if I would obey and trust Him.


So I was to learn to go deeper down to "dig ditches" that were often unseen and unrecognized by others, but which God promised to fill with blessing for others.  My first instinct was "Okay, God, I'll dig you a Suez Canal!" but that was not what he asked for!  My Lord wanted just daily small obediences; He wanted me to do whatever needed to be done next without needing to be thanked or recognized, without a pedestal or a halo.


"You dig that ditch daily and I will fill it daily!"


He wants me to dig ditches, hundreds of little, often unconnected, ditches. Preaching, teaching, visiting, sharing, chatting, being available without seeing any special blessing, these were the ditches I dug.


I was not being asked to dig a Suez Canal, just a multitude of small ditches, each one individually important.


The digging might well involve blistered hands and a sore heart.


Was God asking me to live a day at a time, and do each small task as it arose without asking for one long-term goal?  Ditches?  It's not what we trained for!  We have no proper tools!  It's beneath our dignity!  Of course, without the ditches, the water God wanted to send would have been wasted.  The ditches were essential to contain the promised blessing.


And another ditch was dug and another blessing poured out by our gracious God.


And I must keep on digging ditches until my valley is full - without regrets, without looking backwards, (nor to be planning endlessly for tomorrow and the what-might-be of the future) but rather with joy and expectation waiting for the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour.