Polluted Well

Keeping water clean takes a lot of vigilance.

Proverbs 25:26 says, “like a muddied spring or a polluted well are the righteous who give way to the wicked.”

Everybody using a spring or a well depends on the purity of the source. If a well-shaft is not kept secure things will fall into the well and pollute the water. If animals foul the ground around a spring, or if industries drain toxins into the ground nearby, the aquifer can be compromised and the water made undrinkable.

In the same way, a leader who accepts a bribe destroys trust and fouls the credibility of the workplace. An inspector who looks the other way, instead of being true to her duties, undermines the system she was hired to protect.

The Hebrew verb translated ‘give way’ carries the idea of something slipping, wavering or shaking. Not big stuff, but it’s the little stuff that can kill you. A small trickle of water in a rock fissure can crack stone apart, and it doesn’t require a lot of bacteria to infect a water supply. Nor does it take a lot of bad behavior to corrupt a work-place, a school-yard, a neighborhood or a marriage. It is so very easy for good people to ‘give way’, to shade the truth, slip in with the crowd, cut corners. But as soon as the ‘giving way’ begins, the lines get fuzzier, and water gets muddier.

That’s what happened in Walkerton, Ontario in May 2000. A deadly strain of E-coli bacteria leeched into the water-table from nearby farms. The inspectors in charge of the Public Utility failed adequately to monitor the chlorine levels of the drinking water. Even when they knew the water was contaminated and people began to get sick, they failed to notify the community and nothing was done to protect the people.

Within days, seven people died from drinking contaminated water. Hundreds more suffered from the symptoms of the disease, not knowing if they too would die. It was Canada's worst-ever outbreak of E. coli contamination and cost millions of dollars.

What happens to wells can happen in any human enterprise. Let your vigilance slip and deterioration sets in. Fudge a little here, cover it up there and it gets harder to resist next time. Each lapse gets easier to excuse and harder to reverse. 

Dear God,
Let the well-spring of my life flow clean, clear and fresh today. Help me to guard the focus of my eyes, the effort of my hands, and the decisions of my heart, so that my character is above reproach and my way of life a resource to many. Amen.


Photo Sources:
Wells - World Vision . . . Walkerton Water Tower - CBC