Living Water

Have you ever been through a traumatic experience? Trauma arrives as unexpectedly as a violent storm. It can wreak havoc on your life, creating disorientation, uncertainty, and doubt. Appearing without warning, and consequently, without preparation for how to navigate, it is not uncommon to overlook or ignore basic, even obvious, needs. 

Several years ago, I experienced such an event. The subsequent effects were such that I sought counseling to help me process through the ordeal. After several sessions, the therapist told me that I was suffering from spiritual abuse. I had been betrayed by trusted partners in ministry. Although geographically removed from the situation today, I continue to work to heal from the after effects of that experience.

In my continual effort toward recovering full health, both physical and spiritual, I recently chose to attend a six week grief recovery class. I was astounded to learn in one session that it is not uncommon for the mechanism in our bodies that signals an urge to drink to become “broken” during periods of profound grief. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head! Over the past few years I have been periodically affected for brief periods of time with physical ailments tracing back to mild dehydration.

For those who know me intimately, dehydration is not something which I should be susceptible to. Water has always been my beverage of choice. I drink it will all meals and order it at restaurants. Proselytizing the merits of this clear elixir to others successfully converted my Dr. Pepper drinking husband.  (Until his return to the Lone Star state where he now imbibes the occasional DP on celebratory occasions, etc.).

However, in the past few years, I have allowed myself, more than once, to ignore specific demands and clues from my body to care for myself in a simple habit that I have practiced for a lifetime.

Even just mild dehydration can create pain and discomfort, placing a sudden brake on the forward momentum of life. Experiencing an inadequate supply of life-sustaining water, the body begins signaling the need for hydration, crying out in desperation for attention. If left untreated for long enough, this deprivation can lead to devastating consequences.

Since grief can mask, or numb, our natural inclination to provide a necessary resource for maintenance, purposeful intention becomes necessary. In this state, we must supply consistent doses of water to bypass the inevitable warning light. Deliberate steps must be taken to avoid a deficit, running dry, and creating additional health issues.

Just as we can overlook and fall out of a personal habit (even one we have practiced for a lifetime), it is possible to fall out of spiritual habits as well. And, much like physical dehydration can become hazardous to our physical health, spiritual dehydration can be detrimental to our spiritual health. If left untended, it may lead to further spiritual malaise.

The remedy for physical dehydration is a simple one: drink more water! In much the same way, there is a simple remedy to avoiding or combatting spiritual dehydration as well: drink more water…the living water!

John 4 introduces us to the phrase, “living water”. In this passage, Jesus is speaking with a woman at a well. Jesus, a Jew, asks the woman, a Samaritan, for a drink of water, surprising her because of a well known aversion that Jews had for Samaritans. Jesus informs this woman that he is capable of giving her living water that, once received, would eliminate her thirst for all time. He states in verses 13-14:

 

…Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. 

I am learning through life’s hardships how essential the living water is to thrive. During periods of hardship, it is necessary to hydrate ourselves. Especially against our inclination to overlook or ignore the need to do so. Consistent exposure to and interaction with that life-giving spring will help to ease us through the storms.

In the coming year, I pray that you and I both will continually tap into that eternal spring. Sip from the scriptures. Moisten your lips in prayer. The water supplied will quench your spiritual thirst and support your spiritual health even during the traumas of life.

Fill Your Pitcher

Do you ever feel pulled in so many different directions at once that you fear that you are about to snap under the strain?

Or, maybe you feel like a pitcher, constantly being poured out of in order to fill others’ cups?

In the book Gifts from the Sea, the author, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, describes woman this way and warns against pouring out of yourself to the point of running dry. She states:

“Eternally; woman spills herself away in driblets to the thirsty, seldom being allowed the time, the quiet, the peace, to let the pitcher fill up to the brim.”

When I consider how I pour out of myself into the lives of others (spouse, children, friends, church family, etc.) it emphasizes to me the importance of refilling the proverbial pitcher. Yet, with so many cisterns in the world from which to draw, how can we choose from which well to fill ourselves?

Romans 15:13 tells how, as we trust in God, he will fill us with joy and peace, and we will overflow with hope. Could you use more joy, peace, and hope in your life? I know that I could. Learn to trust God…and get ready for the flood.

My prayer for you, and me, is the same as Paul in Ephesians 3:16-19.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

In both of these passages, the imagery is one of being filled to fullness or overflowing. These are not measured out doses to be drained away before replenishing. He will fill us up completely, full to the point of overflowing. How much better equipped we will be to pour out into the lives of others when we are full of what he provides.

The answer then, is to run to God’s reservoirs!

“But those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14