I said that Bernard’s metaphor of a reservoir conjures up images of a life with deep, living origins, a place to which others are drawn.
The difference between a canal and a reservoir is the nature of its source — or more to the point, the fact that it has a source.
The journey outward requires a journey inward.
Bernard is not talking about motivational categories here. He is talking about insights into the Christian life that are as old as the Christian faith itself.
Jesus observed that the issue isn’t what is on the outside that makes the difference, but what is on the inside. The interior life changes how we live, but the exterior changes are not the point. We aren’t looking for a different result, we are looking for a different kind of life — one “hidden in Christ.”
Therein lies the attraction of reservoir-like lives. In those who live out of a deep dependence upon God, we sense something extra-ordinary — born not of achievement, brilliance, or effort, but of a source beyond human resourcefulness.