Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are

The great Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute, once told a story that I want to recount to you now. Here it is in his words.

A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal: “Water, water. We die of thirst.” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time, the signal, “Water, send us water!” went up from the distressed vessel. And was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A third and fourth signal for water was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River.

Mr. Washington’s meaning was that people of his day should consider staying put and building a prosperous life rather than moving from place to place in search of success, as people of his time tended to do.

I was reminded of this wisdom when I visited a friend this past weekend. Years ago this friend moved to a small town in Texas and began building a life. He grew a successful business one stage at a time over the decades. He now leads one of the most respected institutions in his region. His home is a symbol of his method. He first bought land miles outside of his small town. It was abundant then and cheap. He built an average house. Over the years, he added on. He added rooms as he needed them, built a pool for his children, and continued “growing” his home over the years as need and desire led him. He also bought more land.

Today my friend is a wealthy and esteemed man. Yet I know what he had to do to get there. He planted himself early in his life in a fairly uncool and unremarkable place. He resisted his generation’s urge to climb ladders, pursue far off ventures, and chase. Instead, nearly four decades ago, he put down roots and grew a prosperous and honored life—one brick, one year, one relationship, one acre at a time.

This was all possible because he stayed put, worked hard, invested well, and built steadily.

Now, I mention all this to you because it may be wisdom you ought to consider. We are in the midst of a world job market that is on fire, particularly after the Great Resignation trends of late. People are moving here and there, hiring head hunters, chasing far off possibilities, and moving at nearly a moment’s notice.

This all has its place for some people at some times. Yet there is another narrative and it could be that you ought to be living it. It is the narrative where people plant themselves. They live in one place long term. They build steadily, love where they are, go deep in a community, and mine riches where they weren’t evident at first.

There is no rebuke in what I’m saying. Rather it is merely an alternative view. Some of you are meant to move a great deal. I certainly have been in my life. Yet others of you are meant to settle it once and for all that you have been put by God and circumstances in a certain place. You are meant to thrive there and change lives there. You are meant to build over time. The yield will be great. The price is that all your life you’ll have to resist the call of the shiny and the new. The rewards will be great.

Two lifestyles. Two callings. Two ways of building. Both valid. Both authentic and productive. The only mistake would be to give up the one you are called to in the belief that only the other way is right for all people. It isn’t.

Slow down. Ponder. Consider what you are meant to do. It could be that you need to cast down your buckets where you are.