Letting It Sink In

“The words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart.” (Enos 1:3). To ponder something means to give it weight. In fact, both the word ponder and the word pound come from the same Latin root. Most thoughts flit in and out of our heads as light as dandelion seeds floating on the breeze. Like in the Parable of the Sower, many of these ideas get snatched up by the birds of distraction, or scorched by the sun of impatience, or choked by the thorns of laziness and apathy. If we only allow our thoughts to settle on the surface then they're just going to get crowded out by new thoughts. By pondering the words of Christ, we are allowing those words to sink deep into our hearts, safe from distraction and frustration and apathy. Pondering transforms passing fancies into full fledged ideas, ideas into deep seated feelings, feelings into rock hard certainties. We have to let the gravity of our focused attention and willful effort to truly understand God's words pull these eternal truths beneath our doubts and our fears and our subconscious biases and our mortal, time-bound limitations so that they may sink deeper than our mind, deeper than our heart, deeper than our spirit into the very core of our eternal soul. From such great depths we will be able to draw forth truth and knowledge and wisdom and peace and joy forever and ever. If we lack understanding, we have not pondered, not given enough weight, not sunk deeply enough yet. The well of living waters may be much deeper than we had expected or hoped for, but once we have sunk deeply enough to reach it, we will never thirst again.