Where’s the Water?

“But the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” - Ex. 17:3, RSV

It was hot. It was dry. It was barren. The people hadn’t replenished their water supply in days. Thirst was becoming unbearable. The very young and very old were having trouble keeping going. Where would they find water? When? How many would die of thirst? “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” they complained to Moses. And God wondrously led them to the springs bursting from the rocks in an oasis.

The people didn’t realize it, but their real thirst was not for water, but for God. Even after the miraculous plagues led to their departure from Egypt, even after their miraculous escape through the Red Sea, even after the provision of manna and quails to feed them in the desert, even yet they didn’t know God and God’s great power and love. Once again, God provided a miracle to help them understand. Even then, they only began to realize that we need spiritual water as well as physical water.

Deep within each human being is a soul that eternally seeks to be joined to God in relationship. Sometimes we don’t recognize this need, but only have a vague feeling of incompleteness, of dis-ease. Other times we recognize it for what it is and desperately long for God. In either case, we share with the psalmist the thought, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (Psalm 42:1-2 NRSV)

Where can we find the water that nourishes our souls? We find it today just as when Jesus told the woman at Jacob’s well: “If you…would have asked him, he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10, RSV) Jesus Christ is the Living Water that gives life eternal in relationship to God.

“Thirsting for God” is this year’s theme of the annual SoulJourners Retreat. Come to the Franciscan retreat center in Colorado Springs Sept. 14-16 to find in fellowship, study, and worship a connection to God that will give you Living Water.

When I was young, we drilled a new well. We hit water at sixty feet, but a shallow well was unreliable. So we drilled another 250 slow, expensive feet for the pure, continuously flowing water from the depths. It’s the same with spiritual water; for the best, go deep. Turn to Christ in prayer, in God’s Word, in the silence and solitude of your soul.

Spiritual deserts are as dangerous as physical deserts. Drink lots of living water.

 

 

 

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