To Drink Water

            I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts (Rev 21:6b).

Several months ago was a time that I drank lots of water. That was when I was traveling in Greece, walking over ten hours a day and getting plenty of exercise. I drank straight from a bottle. I drank until I needed to stop and breathe again, and then I would continue to drink some more. During that time, there was nothing my mouth desired more.

To drink water—the pure, unadulterated, tasteless water—was my sole pleasure.

However, my travels ended and I returned home. When I returned to school and to the air-conditioned chambers of the library, I returned to a state devoid of any physical exercise. It was then that I stopped drinking water. The beauty of its crystal-like translucence became an undesirable blandness and I dreaded it.

This was how I lost my thirst for physical water. It was also how I lost my thirst for spiritual water. It seems silly how anyone could lose interest in the precious water of life that Lord Jesus had to break His body to give us. But it does happen. It happened to me.

Just as I stopped drinking physical water when I stopped exercising my body, I stopped drinking spiritual water when I stopped exercising godliness. I stopped making a conscious effort to hold my tongue from uttering crude things, to keep my mind away from lustful thoughts, or to act gently toward others.

When I ceased trying to live a life of holiness, I found praying to be unbearably long and Bible reading cryptic and dry. Even when I forced myself to listen to sermons, I could not focus and all I heard was a constant drone. For all that I did, I could not thirst.

It was only after I began to exercise everyday, that I was able to drink water once again. Physically and spiritually, I had to take some time out of the day to exercise, to get off my comfortable chair and walk around, to be active and sweat. I had to actually strive to live for Christ in spite of my overwhelming shortcomings.

It was only then that I felt thirsty for water again. It was only then that I remembered the sweetness of water. And when I thirsted for water—the life-sustaining, strength-renewing, soul-cleansing water—it tasted wonderful.

 

            Question for Reflection:

How can we work spiritual, in addition to physical, exercise into our schedule today in order to maintain a healthy thirst for God?