Author and Bible teacher Jane Johnson founded Dig Your Well® in 2022 after starting a blog in 2013, eight months after her best friend died from stage four colon cancer and seven years into what would be a decade-long wait for a family.
Throughout those excruciating ten years, Jane dug her well and began teaching women the things she dug up in God's Word in person at conferences throughout the country and with her online community.
Today, Jane teaches women worldwide how to do the same: digging deep into God's Word and studying it for themselves, transforming their quiet times forever. Jane continues her Biblical teaching from her home in Bend, Oregon, alongside her husband, Josh, and their three miracle babes.
the story behind Dig Your Well
I stood in Shawna’s kitchen, looking at photographs on the refrigerator as she expertly pulled shots from the espresso machine in the corner. The motor hummed and the caramel-colored liquid trickled out. She poured it into a cup of ice before topping it off with a swirl of canned whipped cream and a quick finish of sprinkled cinnamon.
Handing the glass to me and keeping one for herself, she led me into the living room and we took our perch on the well-worn, deep purple couch. Kaleb was stirring in his crib upstairs, not yet asleep. And Shawna began asking the kind of questions you ask someone in the throes of a brand-new discipleship-based friendship.
Where are you from?
Do you have any siblings?
What is your major?
Tell me your life story.
This happened once a week—this sharing of learned life lessons. Week by week, we sat there swallowed up in her couch, reading different parts of the Bible alongside commentaries for explanation and insight and application. Shawna knew well that she didn’t have to be a Bible teacher in order to disciple-teach.
Natural conversation followed. The simplest ones that always lead to the deeper ones. The ones that have grit and meaning.
The ones that stick to your bones.
“Dig your well,” Shawna said one day. I had been lamenting my struggle through singleness when the pastor’s wife [who would later become my best friend] taught me her most important life lesson. It was a reference from Psalm 84:6 and the people who pilgrim-pass through the Valley of Baca and make it a spring—or, as it can also be translated, a well. The pilgrims traveling through drew water from that spring-well before continuing on their way.
“Dig your well for yourself,” she said, “and also for the people who follow along after you. And do it now, while you are single and can dig a little bit deeper and linger a little bit longer.” She had a point. I really had nothing else to do but pass the hours drinking coffee, studying for exams, working my part-time job, and dreaming of how the rest of my life would shape up.
Shawna had been digging her own well for years with regular quiet times, letting God fill it with the water of His Word. And on those afternoons, I sipped her handmade iced coffee and drank from her dug-out-well wisdom.
Of all the things she taught me, that was what stuck. To dig down—and dig deep. Every day, coming to God’s presence whether or not I wanted to, whether or not I had the time or the inclination. In the good days and the ones full of tears. Dig in and dig down and dig deep into His Word. So that when life got busy, and there was marriage and a mortgage and little ones at my morning-feet, I could draw from my dug-out-daily well.
And when I walked through the desert, I could drink from it.
excerpt, Mercy Like Morning
I can only BEGIN to imagine the gobsmacked grief and devastating disappointment that SO MANY experienced on that Friday - as the women walked away to their homes, having watched the man they believed in their very core to be the Messiah take His very last breath.
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They expected a miracle that day. Every part of them believed it would happen, somehow, some way.
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They didn’t get it.
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I know the feeling of lamenting a miracle that didn’t come.
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But Jesus turns His face toward yours, the same way He did to those women on that Calvary walk. He takes your face In His holy hands and whispers: “You’re so much closer to the miracle than you could possibly imagine.”
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They followed Him to Calvary. (Luke 23:27).
They stayed until He died, watching (Luke 23:49)
They followed His body to the tomb (Luke 23:55).
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Then they returned (verse 56) and prepared spices and fragrant oils to anoint Him, honoring Him still, in His death. It was in preparation of the same anointing that Mary did six days earlier that is widely regarded as one of the most profound acts of worship in the entire Bible.
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Still, when the miracle did not come, they returned home, and they worshipped Him.
It might not look “good” now, from this place in your story, at this moment in history, but He WILL make it good. I promise.
Looking to breathe new life into your morning reading?
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Try flipping the order in which you do it.
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Are you leading with a devotional or reading plan first? Try this:
1. Read the passage.
2. Chase the cross- references.
3. Look up the word definitions of the words that pulled at your spirit.
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When you’re finished, re-write everything you just dug up into its own brand-new morning narrative. THEN, you’ll read the devotional, Bible study notes, or commentaries to unravel the knots and answer any lingering questions.
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When you arrange your morning in that order, you shift the weight and make space for God to speak. (Bonus Tip: Note any curiosities as you read—that’s usually His Spirit prompting you in a specific direction.)
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The point of this? It’s to prioritize God speaking to YOU first. Then, learn from what He spoke to her after that.
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Shift your weight.
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He’ll shift His in response because He is ready to speak to you as clearly as He does to her. And changing the order of your quiet time?
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It just might change everything for you.
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Get started at:
digmywell.com/free
Turns out the God, who has no beginning and no end, is a conversationalist in the same manner.
Because, with God, it’s one, long, ongoing conversation. He might be quiet now - go back to the last thing that He spoke and camp out there for a while. He’ll pick up right where He left off.
He always does. ♥️
The truth is: most women are using those studies as your entire sustenance when they should only be a small supplement.
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Curious if that’s you? Try a pre-written Bible study fast, just to see how it fits. If, during your fast, you are stuck in your morning without it, you might have a dependency that you didn’t even realize you had cultivated.
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The fix? Creating a rock-solid morning strategy so that you never depend on any one else’s word but God’s. I have a handful of free resources to help you do that, including: a dated (and undated) Bible reading plan so you always know exactly what to read every morning, a bucket list planner to curate your dream digging-list, and a Ditch the Devotional Challenge to try that fast for yourself.
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You can find them all at:
digmywell.com/free
New downloads just dropped on the Dig Your Well FREE resources page!
Freebies to lay a proper foundation.
Freebies to create a morning strategy.
Freebies to help you love God with all your mind.
Grab yours at digmywell.com/freebies