Don't Drink the Water

       While in Mexico, Chris and I were warned to not drink the water.  The likelihood of us becoming ill from the water was very high.  Bottled water became our friend; we could go nowhere without it.  And Mexico in August is hot, especially in the desert.  It makes you thirsty. 

       Thirst is part of being alive.  All living things need water.  But not all water is the same.  Thirst can drive us to do many things.  We can even grab the closest, easiest thing to try to ease the dry burning sensation of thirst.  We go to many substances in an attempt to quench the thirst that is magnified by this life.  We become like my two year old, who went to the toilet.

       One day, late in the morning, the children and I were sitting at the table conversing and enjoying one another’s company.  It was a rare peaceful moment.  Then I see a look of shock and horror come across my daughter’s face.   “What are you drinking, Elias?  Is that from the toilet?!”  I glanced over and saw my  son calmly walking away from the bathroom.  He was cherishing a green Tupperware cup full of precious water that he had collected from the toilet.  He took a long deep drink from the cup and my children erupted.  Some tried to grab it away from him, others expressed their disgust and turned away, and I admit, I just laughed.   He would not let us take it away from him.  He had found a way to take care of his thirst and he was quite proud of his discovery.  He was tired of waiting and asking for a drink of water, the water that comes from our well.  Our well water is quite good.  My husband says it is some of the best water he has ever had.  We are blessed with our water because the source is good. 

        My son did not know that the source he had gone to was a potentially unhealthy one.  He would have to rely on someone else showing and guiding him to a better source.   He needed to drink from the well. 

       Our responses to my son’s efforts to satisfy his thirst were varied.  Probably none of them were good.  We turned away, showed our disgust, and we were thankful that none of us were holding the cup of toilet water.  Someone needed to take Elias by the hand and explain that there was a better place to drink from. 

       Chris and I went to Mexico to be water carriers.  We came with the Source that had quenched our own thirst.  Some laughed as we offered the life giving water we had brought, others were intrigued, and still others practically grabbed it out of our hands and drank it down. 

I still carry around the same life giving water I had with me in Mexico.  Sometimes I offer it freely, other times I turn away in disgust, and other times I laugh in derision.  

      Many people are like my son, thinking they have found an excellent source to satisfy their souls.  I was reminded when I saw my son, with his precious cup of toilet water, that I still have the all important task of water carrier.  As I drink from the Source, I am renewed and my heart is softened.   I hold out my cup of water again.  I remember that I can be a toilet drinker too. 

        We all must drink, but the places we drink from can be deadly.  The young woman who opens her throat to another bottle of Vodka to make the pain of a shameful life disappear,  the hurt young man who grabs for a pale cold shadow of love – even for a moment,  the young mother who swallows another pill to deaden the reality of being unloved, a lonely aging grandmother who tries to hide the bottles of wine behind the plates in the china cabinet, the ever promising entertainment and possessions we fill our days and hours with – dulling our senses and causing our souls to hunger all the more.  We find that we are empty and we discover that the thirst remains.   We long for a drink that will satisfy forever.          

                         ~Your Fellow Sojourner

             “Come, everyone who thirsts,

                        come to the waters;

            and he who has no money,

                        come, buy and eat!

            Come, buy wine and milk

                        without money and without price.

             Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

                        and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

            Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

                        and delight yourselves in rich food.

               Incline your ear, and come to me;

                        hear, that your soul may live;

            and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

                        my steadfast, sure love for David.

            Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,

                        a leader and commander for the peoples.

             Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,

                        and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,

            because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,

                        for he has glorified you.

             “Seek the LORD while he may be found;

                        call upon him while he is near;

            let the wicked forsake his way,

                        and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

            let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,

                        and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

             For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

                        neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

            For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

                        so are my ways higher than your ways

                        and my thoughts than your thoughts.

             “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

                        and do not return there but water the earth,

            making it bring forth and sprout,

                        giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

             so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

                        it shall not return to me empty,

            but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

                        and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

            “For you shall go out in joy

                        and be led forth in peace;

            the mountains and the hills before you

                        shall break forth into singing,

                        and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

             Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;

                        instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

            and it shall make a name for the LORD,

                        an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

              (Isaiah 55 ESV)