Drink Before You Sink

There is really no reason for my struggle. I know all about it. About 70% of the adult body is made up of water. A healthy adult can drink approximately three gallons of water a day. One can actually become intoxicated with too much water, diluting the sodium in the brain. Pure water is not acidic or basic, but is neutral with a pH of 7. And it is believed that by the time an adult feels thirst, they have already lost 1% of the total water in the body. It seems like once one knows the facts, the benefits, and the detriments of too little, one would have no struggle drinking water.  I know that water is not only good for you, but it is needful for life. I grew up with my earliest Greek lesson rolling off my tongue:

            Ἄριστον μὲν ὕδωρ. (ariston men hudor) Water is the best thing to drink! 

But in spite of my Greek lesson (oh the benefits of being the daughter of a Greek professor) and all my knowledge of H2O facts, I am ashamed to admit that many times my twenty-four hour day vanishes with most of my needed daily fluid intake warming in my water bottle, or still trapped somewhere beneath the kitchen faucet.

Why? It is certainly not because there is a water shortage at my house, and we are not under some kind of rationing.  And get this: I really like water. There is nothing so refreshing as a tall glass of just plain everyday water over ice. It has been over twenty years since I have had a soda of any kind. Milk doesn’t quench thirst, and sweet juice just doesn’t cut it. Other than a little coffee or tea, I only drink water.

Another saying that I learned somewhere along the way was from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”:

“Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink

Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.”

But I am not in the middle of an ocean of salt water. All day, every day, water is within an easy reach. I shower, do the laundry, do the dishes, water my plants and the lawn (not really…but my husband does that). But why don’t I stop to drink?

For years my busyness seemed to be the best excuse. After all, I am known for focusing on my ‘list’ and moving through it at lightning speed. Not that I get everything done that is on the list, but my lists, and I’m sure yours, tend to evolve as the day goes on. However, when I’ve tried to add something as simple as “take a drink” to my list, I seem to march right past that little detail, making a mental note to stop next time I go to the kitchen. Never happens!

This summer has been extremely hot here in Texas. Just the other morning, I awoke with my tongue stuck to the top of my mouth. Somehow ‘stuck’ does not seem to convey the panic that gripped me. I mean, I really could not open my mouth.  My throat felt open and stretched, and stripped of all moisture. It was almost as if the dentist had sucked out all the liquid, and then perhaps used my husband’s monster shop vac to make absolutely sure his mission was accomplished. The dry feeling was causing me to choke and smothering me with fear. My seemingly cemented tongue was not budging. I groped my way down the hall, rushing to my source of water. That’s it! I was languishing! I was pining with longing and desire for water! I was thirsty! I am sure I had passed that 1% loss by that time. I’ve said “I am dying of thirst” before, but this time, the fear of the cliché becoming a reality was gripping my throat.

Within seconds I downed the whole glass. Amazingly water dissolved the dust and cement, my tongue was loosed, my panting heart relaxed, and my body refreshed. In the last few sips, the Lord dropped this verse into my spirit:

  “For He satisfies the languishing, and the hungry He fills with good things.” Ps. 107:9

Suddenly I got it. It was not my schedule, and it was not what others pile on top of it. It was not that there was lack or limit. It was, and is, simply that either I do not thirst, or that I have not trained myself to be sensitive to and respond to thirst. Therefore, all my H2O knowledge had stopped short of the thirst quenching river available.

And what a spiritual lesson!  How quickly hours, days, weeks, months and years go by. No, time does not fly, but it does die, even while its rhythmic measures march on and on. There is no way of adding life to what’s past. Eternity awaits.

With all that is going on in our world today, we cannot help but wonder what time it is on the church clock. Not the one on the back wall that is viewed only by the preacher, but the one that hangs just inside my heart door, and yours. Are we so busy checking things off our lists, organizing our programs, keeping up with the culture, writing new songs, and swatting flies, that we have ignored the fact that we are thirsty…so very dry and thirsty? We know that Jesus is that river, that well that never runs dry. We know that He said that if we drink of Him, we will not thirst. We know that He turns deserts into pools of water. It has been recorded that He brought water out of rocks. We can come, buy, without money, and drink freely anytime…but we don’t. With our own hands around our throats we cry, “Oh we are thirsty,” and then dash on out the door to finish our list, stop for ‘take out’ to ‘take in’, just in time for our favorite TV show. And time marches on.

Jesus says “Come all who are thirsty.” We hear and make a mental note to listen and obey…soon. Wars rage, waves roar, and the storms of life pound our salt soaked decks. Why don’t we drink?

“…But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water…” Jn. 4:13-15

With every drink of Water today…Ask for more of Jesus!