Trickle. We often think of it concerning water, like a creek or stream. Away from the water reference, the word means:
come, go, or appear slowly or gradually
A trickle charge from a trickle charger slowly keeps a battery charged and ready for use. Trickle-down economics goes back to the Reagan years, and for the most part, I’m not sure I remember much about it! Sand trickles down the bell of an hourglass, then strains through the narrow opening and drops rapidly into the bottom bell.
It’s a verb, a noun, and, combined with other words, it can be an adjective (trickle-down.) It’s hard to track the word because it seems to have no source of antiquity. (Etymology of Trickle) There are thoughts about its source, but it’s anyone’s guess. It could have something to do with a work stoppage when sailors would “strike down” the sails refusing to go to sea.
Whoops! It seems related to the modern term we all know: Strike! If you think about it, a strike is a slow-down of work! It relates to dribble, drizzle, ooze, drip, or seep. The idea of a slow-down makes sense!
My Question Is
So, I ask myself, can I live with a trickle? A dribble, drizzle, ooze, drip, or from a seep.
In one of my college classes, the instructor used an old descriptor and told us he knew we felt like we were drinking from a fire hydrant. That stopped me in my tracks. I realized there was no way I could contain everything he was teaching. What to do? Receive what you can, and study what you cannot, and maybe down the road, it will all come together, and you can turn it into a trickle and share with others better than you received!
A steady diet of constant flow speaks about your needs and what is required to survive. Some need the fire hydrant, and most of us need the trickling faucet.
To someone who sees the world swiftly flowing past them
A trickle of attention would be a life ring in the rushing flow
To someone who feels like they’ve been forgotten
A trickle of contact would be life-saving
When you are the one feeling on the outs
Someone making a personal connection sure makes the day.
Think It Spiritual
Throughout the Bible, we find a relationship between the steady dew and the survival of a nation.
“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As raindrops on the tender herb, And as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
Deuteronomy 32:1-4 NKJV
That word distill has the flavor of a drip or shed by trickling (Strong’s Concordance). If God trickles his teaching to our ears, would it not be nice to treat our connection back to Him the same way? Through the years, I’ve called it Breath Prayers. Martin Luther stated, “To every Christian, even a sigh is a prayer.” Jesus taught the disciples to pray when they asked for instruction, and part of that prayer says this:
Give us day by day our daily bread.
Luke 11:3 NKJV (Matthew 6:11)
Sum It Up
As the manna fell from heaven,
Daily, it was just enough
God’s word distills as the morning dew,
Again, it’s just enough
In return, I sigh
And that is my Prayer.
Lord, teach me day by day
We search for that gushing hydrant
That’s not the only place He’s found!
Life is lived better by the steady small things
Just as that still small voice of God
Comes after the Wind, Quake, and Fire
~Michael Gurley