Spiritual connections: ‘Be a fountain, not a drain’

I grew up on a farm in rural Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Our nearest big town for shopping was Red Wing, nestled in the bluffs on the banks of the mighty Mississippi, with its one department store.

The town square there in front of the Goodhue County Courthouse is mighty impressive … most would say, “INSPIRATIONAL!”  

On all four corners of the square are churches where worshippers from the community have gathered for nearly two centuries. 

The signboard outside one of the churches reads, “Be a fountain, not a drain.” An internet search attributes the quote to Rex Hudler, a former professional baseball player and now a broadcaster for the Kansas City Royals.

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Together the courthouse and the churches make a simple but profound statement about the separation of church and state in our country, but also about the importance of each in our society and our lives. 

At the center of the square and in front of the beautiful white pergola is a pool with the city fountain’s bubbling waters filling the serene park with soothing sounds and drawing those passing by to it.  

Eden Prairie’s city fountain lifts up the waters of Purgatory Creek, which widens into a lake near the park pavilion and the Veterans Memorial. Through funds gathered in the Eden Prairie Community Foundation in 2003, citizens added this important water feature that has helped draw our rapidly growing and diverse population together. The memorial gathers us year-round, as the fountain also does when the lake is not iced over, and especially at one particular event very important to me and many other folks that happens there each year … the Memorial Day observance! 

When I came to Eden Prairie in 1977, one of the first people I met was City Council member Billy Bye. You may recall his name from his play on the legendary University of Minnesota football teams in the late ’40s, as well as his subsequent play and coaching at all levels of the game.

Billy’s leadership in our community was visionary! Many EP long-timers will remember him saying often, “In the future, there will come times when important community projects to improve our quality of life will arise, for which taxpayer’s dollars are not the appropriate funding source. We need a community foundation to receive donations for those purposes.” Thus, the Eden Prairie Community Foundation was born in 1985. 

Stories of fountains “welling up” can be found in the Bible. In the Old Testament, Moses touches a rock with his staff, and water gushes forth. In the New Testament, Jesus recognized and reached out to a woman in need at a well.

On that farm where I grew up, there were springs in the fields and one in the pasture where my great-grandfather “pushed” a pipe into the hillside years ago, and to this day, water runs from that natural spring into a cattle tank for their watering. In our rural community, there are so many natural springs making wet spots in many fields, causing pioneers to name our country congregation Spring Garden Lutheran Church.

A similar example is Miller Spring on Spring Road in our own community! You might want to bring some water jugs and fill them there today. Be sure to bring the children and be sure you tell them, ‘Be a fountain … not a drain!”

Editor’s note: Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN) contributor Pastor Rod Anderson also serves on the EPLN Board of Directors. He was the senior pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie.

Interested in contributing a faith-based column to EPLN? Email editor@eplocalnews.org.