“My Pastor in Chicago, Bill Leslie, said he often felt like an old hand-operated water pump, the kind found in some camp grounds. Everyone who came to him for help would pump vigorously a few times, and each time he felt something drain out of him. Ultimately he reached a place of spiritual emptiness, with nothing more to give. He felt dry, dessicated.
In the midst of this period, Bill went on a week-long retreat and bared his soul to his assigned spiritual director, a nun. He expected her to offer soothing words about what a sacrificial, unselfish person he was, or perhaps recommend a sabbatical. Instead she said, “Bill, there’s only one thing to do if your reservoir runs dry. You’ve got to go deeper.” He returned from that retreat convinced that his faith depended less on his outer journey of life and ministry than on his inner journey toward spiritual depth.
In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where I live, well-diggers drilled down 640 feet before striking water for our house. Even then the water only trickled until they used a technique called ‘fracking’, short for hydro-fracturing. Pumping water down the well shaft at very high pressure, technicians shattered the granite into gravel and opened seams for water flow. As I watched, pressures that to me seemed likely to destroy the well actually tapped new sources of water. I’m sure Bill Leslie would appreciate the analogy: extreme pressure, seemingly destructive, forced him to seek new sources of strength – the very reason he had pursued spiritual direction in the first place.”
- Philip Yancey in 'Reaching for the Invisible God'.