Spiritual Water and Brokenness

Corryne Wick
Oct 10
4 min read

Cistern: How Spiritual Brokenness Begets Transformation

I was recently asked to write down a dream I once had:

I dreamed that I was a broken cistern. What is that? Well, it was like a well, but without a bottom leading to a water source, rather, it was meant to catch rainfall...Imagine a cistern that looks like a well, but without any depth. Just a ring of stone capable of holding water with a stone or cement bottom. Imagine this particular cistern is broken though, like its been ripped apart to access the water by animals and people.

The similarity here is that the tree behind it is like the cistern in my dream. In my dream, there was an olive tree behind and next to the cistern, benefitting from its proximity to the water inside. It was a desert area, arid and dry.

The next thing that happened was an ape man with a battle axe came and chopped one last hole into the cistern to get a drink, ruining it completely and negating its ability to hold water.

My last thought was: “I’m going to die.” But then my vision panned to the tree growing behind it and I realized, now I’m the tree.

I think the whole point of this dream was simple: Life has broken us, but the point of a cistern is not solely to store water but to store it so other creatures can use it. The brokenness was a spiritual and emotional brokenness, and the tree would grow as a result of the brokenness. Fortunately, a well or cistern can be repaired with the right tools. But a tree or person will die without enough water.

A person crazy enough to break a cistern when all they needed to do was reach the water…well, that is why it was an ape man. A primal man, one not accustomed to thinking about the results or implications of his actions. Or, someone who no longer needed the function of the cistern and wanted the water for himself. Like the broken bowl in my china cabinet. (See Broken and Consecrated below) I wonder how much of the pain people go through in life is because of the mistakes of others. Many of them probably are and many more are growing pains. Food for thought!

Winter 2025

Cistern: Part II- A Living Tree

I’ve had a hard week on multiple fronts of my life. And its given me some ideas.

If I am not the cistern but the tree…maybe that represents the transformation that Jesus can do in a life when a person is willingly letting Him work. Like, looking for that way to work with God instead of just bumping along on and into anything and everything on the way.
When I think about it, do we go through our lives gradually being broken until we realize that nothing can change the fact that we are broken and need fixing?
I’ve been through multiple times where I definitely endured a pattern of change. I remember a professor of mine called it “stretching the mind.” And, the process is difficult and it hurts. If it didn’t hurt, then we wouldn’t be growing.
There are times where I say: “I’m so tired of growing! I just want to stop.”
In reference to this…I’ve decided that my Saturdays are not for working, but for resting. I still clean and cook, etc. Yes, but it's called taking care of myself and having time for myself. After a long week, when I work, I always try to avoid working on Saturdays and end up more tired than I was in the first place. If God rested on the Sabbath, then I need a Saturday to myself too. That being said: its Sunday. I need to get working.

Autumn 2025

Cistern: Spiritual Brokenness and Living Water

How Living Water is Spread through Community

I have been working on my website lately! I have finally gotten to a point in my life where I can do what I both want and need to do because I have enough time right now! I am not saying that its perfect. I am not saying that I don't ever get stressed or that it will happen forever. But...right now things are going pretty well.

I have been thinking about this topic of Spiritual Brokenness, like being a broken cistern that can no longer hold water...and, I am understanding it differently.

Perhaps I make sense of what the Bible says literally, as well as metaphorically. I am not going to quote it directly, but John 4:13-15 clearly states that those people who drink Jesus' living water will turn into a spring of Living Water welling up into eternal life. I don't think that Jesus intended us to just have a regular well...maybe he wanted a full-on gushing downpour-like stream of water flowing out. In which case...my little picture of a well up above is probably not entirely accurate. For more than one reason, this picture isn't accurate because the parched desert around it would soon become a river and a garden.... For this reason, I have a picture to the side...