In West Texas is a famous oil field known as the Yates Pool but during the Depression it was a humble sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Sadly, Yates’ ranching operation was going broke. Unable to pay the mortgage he was in danger of losing his ranch. Like many others of the time, Yates struggled to buy necessities for his family and was forced to live on government subsidies. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he lived with great anxiety and a troubled spirit as he tried to make ends meet. Then a scouting crew from an oil company came by and proposed to Yates that there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a test well and he signed a lease contract. And lo and behold, 1,115 feet below Mr. Yates troubled sheep ranch they struck a huge oil reserve! The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day (that’s about $8 million/day in today’s economy). Subsequent wells were twice as large. Even 30 years after the discovery, a government test on one of the wells showed that it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all! It was ALL HIS from the day he purchased the land! He was a Multi-Millionaire but he was living off of Government Subsidies. He owned great wealth but lived in ignorance of the resources that laid beneath his anxious feet. He owned it, but he didn’t possess it!
I want for my Christian Life to be all that it can be. I don’t want to live in despair and anxiety while deep wells of grace and peace lay untapped beneath the surface. The design of the Christian Life is for us to know the righteousness of God imputed to us and to embrace the great calling we have in Christ which flows into a Living Experience and Practical Exercise of Grace and Peace! But regrettably, the life experience of many Christians is one of spiritual impoverishment characterized by boredom, loneliness, and pride. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the thorough knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103)
Lead, Laugh, Love 