Oh I love that dirty water....yeah, Jesus you're my home

Today's Readings;

Psalm 30, 32, 42, 43, Deuteronomy 7:17-26, Titus 3:1-15, John 1:43-51

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God."

Psalm 42:1-2                     

We don't understand this verse like we are supposed to. We like bottled water. This is healthy, to an extent. We understand that there is very little water left in the world in which you can simply dip your hand and take a drink. We know we need water. But we tend to drink it more for the "health benefits" than because we are dying of thirst. We have, I would argue, divorced ourselves from the reality of "dying of thirst". And for this I am grateful, to an extent. I also believe it has led to our lack of dependence and thirst for God. How?

I met these kids in a village called Mwakashinda, in Tanzania three years back. I was working with the mobile clinic distributing mosquito nets that my ministry had purchased and spent the day with them. I understand how scarce water is in Tanzania so I asked them to show me where they got their water. They took my hand and we ran-skipped down the path for a half mile or so until we came to their water source; this puddle, creek, thing. This is where they walk to every day and fill buckets, place them on their heads (the girls, boys carry them) and then walk back and drink it and cook with it and wash with it and everything else.

They know they need to boil it, but boiling uses up precious, expensive charcoal, so most just heat it up. It makes them sick some of the time, keeps them below optimue health most of the time, but keeps them alive all of the time. This water was what the deer was panting for. This is what his tongue was sticking out of his parched mouth about. This is what made the kids beam with pride. This is what keeps the babies of Tura alive. This is what parches the African thirst. This is life...

When you look at the picture, what is your first reaction? As a North American I would venture to say you had a combination of two feelings; 

1) you were disgusted and thought to yourself you would never drink that

2) you were filled with compassion ( I hope) and wanted to dig them a well

In either case, it proves the point I began this post with; you do not understand desperation for water. If you did, you would have said, ah, life giving water! Thank you God! If you have never understood desperation for water, you can not understand what the writer understands desperation for God to feel like.  How can I say that? 

Desperation makes you cry out. Desperation clarifies what you are lacking. Desperation screams of need. We in North America (most of us, most of the time) live without desperation.

When you can say with confidence you have experienced desperation, then you can pray with the psalmist with integrity; my soul thirsts for God. Then you will have the heart of gratitude that understands just how life-giving the well of Living Water is. Until this happens in your life, you'll keep on trusting bottled water and not the source.

This Lent, pray God shows you how to be desperate. Pray you no longer drink from the well of self-sufficiency, but from the source of Life.