A few days ago we began the day with an unexpected inconvenience; we had no water. I was aware of it even before getting out of bed, as it just so happened that I grabbed my phone and was glancing through some news, including that ultimate clearinghouse of all things true: Facebook. There was a post on our city’s FB page announcing that there was a city-wide water outage. School was canceled for the day, and we were left to ponder what must have been the most asked question that morning: how long will we be without water?
A couple of hours into the morning we received an automated call giving more details about the event. The message indicated that our town’s water system had suffered a “catastrophic failure” at the pump station that brings water from our supply lake. The use of that phrase was not an exaggeration. It was not as if one neighborhood was out because of a line break. There was a failure in the line nearly at its very source. Until that failure was addressed, no one would have water. No one. This was a problem of significant magnitude, a failure in the system that supplies something that is an essential need for all of our residents. Catastrophic indeed! Fortunately, through the efforts of our city officials and workers, we had water flowing later that day. After another day under a boil water advisory, everything was back to normal.
While H2O is vitally important, this incident caused me to reflect on a matter of even more significance, and that is the source of our spiritual vitality. John 7:37 records these words of Jesus: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” How would we react if we were met one morning with the news that Jesus was unavailable? Would we think, “Oh my gosh, this is serious! How long until I can access him again?” Or would we think, “Eh, whatever. I can go on about my day without being affected.” Of course this is hypothetical. There will never be a catastrophic failure with Jesus. He is true and faithful, always accessible to those who want to satisfy the soul with his grace. The question is, how important is it to you that you drink consistently from his provision?
We try so many insufficient things to satisfy our thirst. The culprits most often named are things like drugs, sex, wealth and possessions. There are many others, including social networking, seeing how many “likes” we can get on our FB post. The list could go on. All of these have one thing in common. They will at some point suffer a catastrophic failure. Their availability or their ability to satisfy will fail. Jesus, though, never fails. My friend Scott Knowlton put it this way: “When we drink what the Savior provides, that satisfies; that’s as good as it gets.”
Thirsty? Drink freely of Jesus. He never fails, and he satisfies the deepest longing.
See you along the winding path.
The Winding Path 