Last night was a dream night. It was kind of like going to a bunch of different amusement parks. First an island adventure, then to the Middle East and then somewhere in Southeast Asia. Funny, I do not go to bed with those places on my mind for the most part. Occasionally before falling asleep I will pray for a place, but usually I am “programming” for answers, for encounters. So, going places and seeing people is not something I “look” for.One of the things I “saw” was a well. (Ever notice the people of God love wells? Ever notice that digging old wells in scripture was pretty controversial. Seemed like it was easier to dig a new one…)

I was sharing with someone the other day after writing about gardens the story of my agreeing to dig a well for neighbor. I was perhaps 8, maybe 9 years old. He offered to pay me $100!

One day he decided to put a well in next to the barn. (No longer would I have to trudge across the street with two 5 gallon buckets.) So, another neighbor, Mr. Cavanna, came over and found a branch. He began to dowse the property. In moments this branch went wild. He asked me to hold onto it. I could hardly keep it in my hands. “Eleven feet, more than enough water right here. “ Wow! I had never seen anything like that. (and people wonder how I “wandered” into witchcraft…)So, as my dad, Mr. Harrison and Mr. Cavanna stood by beginning my instruction, Mr. Arbuckle sat in his chair(He was disabled.) pouring water for me. (Pretty sure they were all drinking Colt 45.) I began to dig and as the hole got wider and deeper, it was not but the following day before I was down in the slimy clay walls, with water trickling about my feet. I learned how to put in the valve and pipe and we were soon filling up around it. Running the line into the chicken coop, we bolted on a head for the crank pump. (Each day I would take some water from the previous day and prime the pump.) Oh yeah…11 feet!

I am pretty convinced I was a poster child for child labor laws, but as I reflect on the time, I think so many “feel” like they are at the bottom of the well. At the bottom, looking up, hoping nothing else falls upon them.

While down at the church building last night to pray I was talking to a young woman and when I asked her how old she was, she said that she was 21. I talked to her about what I was doing when I was 21. I had gone to work for a Fortune 500 company. Within 3 months I was moved from assistant store manager to store manager to assistant credit manager and as I walked through the door the credit manager quit and I was it. I thought this is amazing but then realized I was so far “over my head” as I traveled to stores with grizzled managers who thought I was just a punk. Or found myself employing collection techniques that looked like the mob had appeared. I was at the bottom of a well. A year later I walked away.

But as I looked back, I realized I had choices. I could go anywhere and apply anywhere. Real people talked to me, met with me. In my whole life there was only one job I got turned down for. (I never forgot it. I walked away discouraged, unbelieving that someone did not want a 21 year old hot shot. I vowed never again.)

While looking through my notes I was thinking how much this generation has never tasted, never seen. While I think this upcoming youth have it “easy” they do not have Utopia. That folks rests upon us who are older, to teach them how to see, how to pray and how to prosper.

When I was a child I had to walk to Edward Smith Library in Northford and open a card catalogues. (Heck you could not even pass civics if you did not know how to use them! There was no internet, turn on your phone mode. It was a thrill to have a long phone cord to hide in a closet while you conversed!)

You had to write letters and people had to be able to READ them. You had to use paper, a pen (Or a crayon) and be able to get it into an envelope. Put a stamp on it and march over to the post office. It might take a week to get there!

No one had MP3’s or could burn music. Want to steal? You had to get to a music store or fill out an RCA or Columbia record application and NOT pay for it! You listened to the radio or records and hoped your little sister had not thought they were fun to scratch. (Now they call them scratch DJ’s but in my day those folks worked in a radio station!)

I remember the summer vacation I took my daughter on. She had a pager. She realized as we headed deep into the Adirondacks, that there was no signal. She and my son also found out there was no TV! For excitement they drove to Cumberland Farms one night to buy an ice cream…

So, I thought that this young people has never really seen abundance. They have not seen the papers (Well, when they had papers…) with 4-6 pages of small classified ads for jobs. Where luxury cars abounded and cars were “cars”. (Pet peeve-all cars look alike!) Where business grew like a weed and stores did not go out of business. (Well, if they did they were usually thought to be scamming and selling it “all” and opening up somewhere else to do it again.) There was a sense of pride. Not just for you or your family but the good things you worked for and represented.

In so many respects if you are under 30, you do not remember the “good old days”. (I am not saying everything was perfect, but we never experienced the 9/11 or all the craziness.) On some level these children were born into the “bottom of the well”, where those of us who are older know what it looks like to be outside and free. These young people in so many respects had no “hope” in the beginning.

So I am speaking to you who are older than 30 and I am saying “step up to the plate”. It is important for the quality of our existence as a people. Get involved. Get your hands dirty if you must, but do it. Stop bemoaning your present and take the goodness you know to be true and do something with it. It is time for the church to break out of our “captive” mentality and spread the freedom we know to be true and available.

With 20% of the households in the country with no worker in the home and the low business growth, it is time. This is not political or governmental, but in so many respects it is kingdom. It is time for “we the people” of God to get off some of the “high horses” we have ridden and to move out and get a little “dirty”. To break out the freedom that is given to us and make it known

We have “made” all the jokes, allowed our anger to burn,, even “wanted to die” and now it is time to say “enough is enough” for today is the day. To walk on waters never thought to be crossed. I call out for the Peter’s and Paul’s, for the Mary’s and the Martha’s. I call out for those who have seen the Father to move with love in their heart, fire in their bellies and lightning in their eyes. Let this be the day to move mountains and molehills, to shape minds and mentalities. There is a cry in the land for mercy, but today is the day of grace. The day of blessings is upon us. Let the harvesters overtake the planters. Amos said “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved.” Amos 9:13

I tell you this day, that this is the day of kingdom authority and kingdom rule. You say, “I can not wrap my brain around it” but God says “today”. The overturning of religion is at hand. Even today tables are being overturned that carried false promises and unnecessary sacrifices and today He is in your midst. No longer do you sit at the bottom of the well, but is in fact the rising of the waters which are lifting you out.

Even as I wrote that I saw people staring at their Facebook, looking at the news and saying “nah, can’t be. Don’t you see? The world is going downhill.” I can not help you with that. As the boys father said “I believe. Heal my unbelief.” Many will hear but not listen. Many will view but now see. As God said to Moses, if they will not believe you or heed the witness…” Exodus 4:7-9 Even if they did not believe God got them out! There is a “getting out” coming. And many will come!

Make today your day!