Dig Your Wells Deep

Here's a simple story about perseverance that I think any of us on this fiction writing journey can be inspired by. I've certainly found it helpful to remember and often mention it when giving workshops or addressing audiences.

There was once a man who had a farm in the middle of the desert. He got tired of traveling a long distance to fetch water every day and asked God to please supply him a water course closer to home. When God heard his request, He sent an angel to the man, who said, "God would like you to dig a well. If you do, you'll have all the water you'll ever need." Then the angel left and the man got digging.

Fifty years later, the man met the angel again when he got to heaven. The man cried out, "God deceived me! I dug one hundred wells, all fifty feet deep, and never tapped into any water. I just wasted my time." With that, the angel replied, "If you'd just dug one well one hundred feet deep instead of a hundred wells fifty feet deep, you would've found all the water you ever needed."

I took that simple story to heart. I'd dug plenty of fifty feet deep wells over the years and abandoned them. We probably all do in our early years. It's part of growing. I've made up my mind to concentrate on a few wells and keep digging. The wells of writing my novels and homeschooling my children are worthwhile to me, even when I feel that I've long since plumbed fifty feet and it's still dry down there. These wells don't necessarily show any signs of dampness from day to day, but I won't stop digging.

Are you digging wells too? I'd love to give you some friendly encouragement to keep going. Don't take the dryness as a sign that there's no water down there. Remember the angel's words in this story, "God would like you to dig a well," and keep those shovels flying.

Paula Vince is a homeschooling mother and award-winning Christian fiction author who lives in the beautiful Adelaide Hills of South Australia with her family. She believes that fiction authors have a responsibility to offer readers their very best, and takes the quest seriously. Nothing can penetrate the depths of a person's heart like a well-written story with lovable characters.