A Thirsty Soul

It’s been said, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”  Or, perhaps, “You don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone.”  It’s the idea that we often take for granted the things we have until we need them and can’t have them (i.e. toilet paper).
 
I was recently asked: “What’s the first thing you want to do when this (pandemic) is all over?”  I honestly could not come up with a quick answer.  The reality is that I have not had to give up as much as others have had to.  I might enjoy or appreciate a meal at a nice restaurant.  But, that seems so petty and selfish.  I might go to the movies.  Again, rather petty and selfish.

But, after a meal or a movie, then what?  Does life go back to normal?  And what really is “normal”?  My life right now seems pretty “normal”.  However, there is one thing I’ve realized during this pandemic. I did not know how thirsty I had become when life was “normal”, and I don’t want to be that thirsty again.

During this pandemic, I have come to appreciate and value the times I spend drinking from the well of “living water”.  I didn’t realize that I was living in a “dry and weary land”, with a “dry and weary” soul. I didn’t realize how refreshing the living waters of Christ could be.

It’s not that I didn’t have any water – I had plenty of water.  Or, so I thought.  It could be that I allowed life, or even “ministry”, to distract me from spending the time I needed to quench my soul, or convince me that I had enough to sustain me.  I may have been drinking from what Jeremiah calls “broken cisterns” (2.13).  Or, I had neglected what Jeremiah calls “the fountain of living waters”.  Don’t get me wrong.  I did my morning devotions.  I spent time in prayer.  I read the Bible.  Was it because I knew I needed the living waters, or because that’s what you do as a Christian?  If I’m honest, as my soul is being replenished with “rivers of living water” during these days, I didn’t know how thirsty I had become.  

 “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.’” (John 7.37)