We certainly have a lot of options when it comes to water these days! Most of you blog readers remember as kids playing and when we got thirsty, we drank from the garden hose. Tap water, put into the refrigerator in containers. As drinking water from the tap became more suspect, I remember the machines outside of grocery and drug stores. You could bring your empty gallon milk jugs to fill up for a few quarters. Then came the store-bought bottled water. Now, you can see in the refrigerated bins by the check-out lines all sorts of “hydrating beverages”. Protein and energy water. No thanks, I’ll pass. I’ll just stick my reusable glass under the water dispenser of the refrigerator.

We are told by scientists and doctors to “get ahead of our thirst.” If you wait until you are thirsty, it might be too late – on rare occasions, fatally so. Many people I know get hospitalized for dehydration. It is alarming to get to a point in life when you are not aware that you need to drink water. I’m not an eight-glass-a-day guy, and science and medicine have mostly debunked that myth. But we do need to heed our thirst, and be preemptive, proactive.  We thirst for life-giving water. It is biblical. Water and oxygen are the life-forces. Without them, we die quick. We do need to drink wisely. I bet bottled water keeps flying off the shelves in Flint, Michigan. We have to reach for the right stuff.

This applies to our relationship with God. We have to come to the true water. Be wary of the bottle marked “religion”. Jesus did. Religion tends to pacify while never truly satisfying. Church activities might hide a thirst, but only God quenches it. Drink him, often. Regular sips of ceaseless communion. Going back to physical hydration, when I was young, I would guzzle cold water when I was hot. My thirst was still not slaked. I learned the value of taking it slow and easy. Let my body slowly recover. We come to our Lord thirsty, even as we already know that sin has no ultimate power. We are never separated or far removed from his unconditional love. The underground springs of God are a reservoir helping us in our daily lives of sin. It is bottomless, like the French fries at Red Robin. Drink deeply and often. Experience flowing rivers of living water.

Pastor Art