What is the Third River?

I first heard about the third river from an author by the name of Craig Hill in his book Wealth, Riches, and Money. The story goes something like this;

Once upon a time there was a massive snowfield up in the mountains. The snowfield created a virtually infinite supply of water that collected into a huge reservoir, from which three rivers flowed out of. There was a kindly, loving old man who spent his days managing the outflow from the reservoir into each of the three rivers through a series of levers and gates.

On the first river there lived a farmer whose life experiences taught him that he never had quite enough water to meet his needs. Because of this, he decided to build a dam on the river so he could draw water out of a lake instead of the river, thinking that if he hoarded the water he would have enough.

On the second river there also lived a farmer. His life experiences taught him that there was usually plenty of water to meet his needs, so he only drew the water that he needed and let the rest flow downstream for those that lived down the river.

On the third river there lived yet another farmer. His life experiences taught him that there was an infinite supply of water that flowed down the river, more than he or anyone else could ever use. In fact, there was so much water available that he began building irrigation canals so that he could share water with his neighbors that didn’t live on the river. Each year he would build more and more canals, and there was always enough water to fill each canal and meet the needs of those around him.

Now imagine you were the kindly, loving old man who controlled the outflow from the reservoir into the three rivers. Which river do you think you would send the most water down?

For the farmer on the first river, the old man sent just enough water downstream to meet his needs. He didn’t send more downstream than he needed because the water would just become stagnant and unproductive behind the dam.

For the farmer on the second river, he again sent just enough water downstream to meet the needs of that farmer and the others living downstream from him. However, there was no need to send huge quantities of water down the second river because it would never reach its full usefulness.

Of course at this point you know that the vast majority of the water was sent down the third river. Why? Was it because the loving old man loved the farmers differently? No, he loved them all equally. But he could see that by sending the vast majority of the water down the third river, it would benefit the most people because of the stewardship of the third farmer.

What river are you living on?

When it comes to the stewardship of your resources, how are you managing them? Resources such as time, talents, finances, knowledge, love, and relationships…

Are you like the first farmer who dams up the resources, thinking that somehow that will help you to have enough … when in reality you never seem to? Are you like the second farmer, who generally has enough and isn’t wasteful, but doesn’t actively seek to share his resources with others.

Or are you like the third farmer on the third river, who knows that God has unlimited resources and that He allows those resources to flow through the ones that will actively seek to share with others so that as many people as possible will benefit?

The world provides us with unlimited resources. I will go a step further and say that I believe that it is a loving God that provides these resources for us. It is not just about us having the resources we need, but that we actively manage the resources that we’ve been given so that many, many people can benefit.

This affects how we spend our money and our time. It affects how we show love to others. It affects how we share knowledge with each other, and how we build relationships. Do we just focus on getting more, more, more for ourselves, or do we decide how much is enough and focus instead on being good stewards and helping others learn to tap into these resources.

Will you join me in this journey to live on the third river?