(Graduation address continued)
Finally, if we want to know how to live, we have to learn to be people of honesty and forgiveness. Jesus said, "The truth will set you free."
I walked into my doctor's office about 8 years ago complaining of a chronic intestinal issue. It was a problem that went all the way back to my college days. I expected my doctor to give me a pep talk about my diet and to give me something to take for it. Instead, she looked at me right in the eye and said, "Until you deal with whatever is upsetting you, you are going to keep coming back here for the same problems." What? I thought she had lost her mind until I realized there was truth to what she was telling me. She wanted me to face my problems head on, tell myself the truth about them, give them to God, and then let go of them. On that day, I started down on what I call the "path of truth", and I've never looked back.
We live in a world of liars. Politicians lie, parents lie to their children, children lie to their parents, we live to ourselves. We lie, because we cannot face the truth about ourselves.
The truth is, we are made in the image of God, born with incredible gifts and abilities, but sin has destroyed that beauty. Like a masterpiece painted on a rotting canvas that has been knifed and then spray-painted with graffi, we cannot look at the beauty that is us without looking at the rot and damage that has been done. The horror that something so beautiful could be damaged so badly is unbearable to us, so we look the other way, or we lie about it.
This is why we must have that relationship with God that I talked about when I started. Christ died and rose again to deal with our sin. When we yield ourselves to God and allow Him to deal with our fallen nature, we begin to see for the first time who He meant for us to be. He begins restoration (our sanctification) on the masterpiece that is us. He restores the rotten canvas, cleans up the graffiti, repairs the holes, and we start becoming what He meant for us to be all along.
That means we ask God for grace to live a life of honesty and forgiveness: honesty with God by confessing our sins to Him daily and accepting His forgivenss; honesty with others by not hiding who we really are behind masks, vowing to tell the truth no matter how much it hurts, and forgiving others when they sin against us; and honesty, by refusing to lie to ourselves about what and who we really are and forgiving ourselves when we fail.
How shall we then live? We must vow to live with and for God first, and then for others.
What kind of people should we be? We must be men and women of truth and forgiveness.
I will close with this quotation from Oliver DeMille and Sharon Brooks in their book Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens.
It is said that when God wants to change the world, he sends a baby--perfectly timed to grow, learn, prepare, and then take action at the right moment...when God sees a need coming in the world, he sends a baby.
But there are times when one baby won't suffice, when the challenges the world faces are just too much; and so instead of a great reformer or a few key people, what is needed is a whole generation of leaders.
When the world is broken, a generation is born. We live in such a world. And you are such a generation.
Gandhi is ofen credited with saying that you should be the change you wish to see in the world. We wonder if he meant literally that you should change the world's problems in yourself? Maybe.
But we think he also meant that you should be who you were truly born to be-the best, true, Real You!
Is there anything in the world as powerful as a person who is truly himself? Or herself? Especially when the person is in love with good?
And I will add, especially when that person is in love with God and others.
Monday, May 17, 2010
How Shall We Then Live - Part Three
(Graduation address continued)
Next, if we want to know how to live, we need to learn that people are more important than our education, our jobs, our success, or our personal pleasure. Jesus said that the law can be summed up this way, "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." When we love our neighbors as ourselves, we think of others and their needs before our own.
There is a song written by Harry Chapin that was popular when I was growing up. I heard it again in the grocery store recently. It's called, "Cats in the Cradle". The song is about a father who is so busy with work and bills and responsibilities he doesn't have time to spend with his son. When the son is all grown up and the father finally has found some time to spend with his son, the son is too busy. It's a sad song, because it mirrors what so often happens. Our lives, our plans, our goals, our selfishness gets in the way of the people in our lives.
In February, we lost my brother-in-law to a tragic death. His own son shot and killed him. My sister's world was turned upside down in a matter of seconds. When she looked at the mess of her family and the destruction of her home by the police and investigators who ransacked her house and belongings, she said to me, "Next to God, the only thing that really matters in life is people." My sister lives what she said, and it became apparent when hundreds of her friends showed up to support her on the day of her husband's wake. The lines of people were out the door, and the ushers finally had to close the doors and send people away, because my sister was so exhausted from greeting them. There were over 500 who showed up, and she took the time to speak personally to every person who stepped in the door.
In the days that followed my 22-year-old nephew and I sat in a restaurant sipping coffee and reflecting on the lessons that God was teaching our family. I was telling him how difficult it is to balance all my responsibilites of housework, homeschooling, church and family and still give attention to the people in my life. He challenged me to make people my priority by doing at least one thing for someone every day that is a sacrifice to me, simply because I love them. I took up his challenge, and it has changed my life.
For me, a sacrifice is dropping what I'm doing to help my husband with one of his chores, or listening to one of my children telling me the same thing for the 10th time, or being kind to someone who has been unkind to me without expecting something in return.
If our society, if our world is falling apart, it's because we have forgotten that it is people who make our world what it is. And each perons in this world has value. If we don't invest in others, our soceity will self-destruct.
Next, if we want to know how to live, we need to learn that people are more important than our education, our jobs, our success, or our personal pleasure. Jesus said that the law can be summed up this way, "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." When we love our neighbors as ourselves, we think of others and their needs before our own.
There is a song written by Harry Chapin that was popular when I was growing up. I heard it again in the grocery store recently. It's called, "Cats in the Cradle". The song is about a father who is so busy with work and bills and responsibilities he doesn't have time to spend with his son. When the son is all grown up and the father finally has found some time to spend with his son, the son is too busy. It's a sad song, because it mirrors what so often happens. Our lives, our plans, our goals, our selfishness gets in the way of the people in our lives.
In February, we lost my brother-in-law to a tragic death. His own son shot and killed him. My sister's world was turned upside down in a matter of seconds. When she looked at the mess of her family and the destruction of her home by the police and investigators who ransacked her house and belongings, she said to me, "Next to God, the only thing that really matters in life is people." My sister lives what she said, and it became apparent when hundreds of her friends showed up to support her on the day of her husband's wake. The lines of people were out the door, and the ushers finally had to close the doors and send people away, because my sister was so exhausted from greeting them. There were over 500 who showed up, and she took the time to speak personally to every person who stepped in the door.
In the days that followed my 22-year-old nephew and I sat in a restaurant sipping coffee and reflecting on the lessons that God was teaching our family. I was telling him how difficult it is to balance all my responsibilites of housework, homeschooling, church and family and still give attention to the people in my life. He challenged me to make people my priority by doing at least one thing for someone every day that is a sacrifice to me, simply because I love them. I took up his challenge, and it has changed my life.
For me, a sacrifice is dropping what I'm doing to help my husband with one of his chores, or listening to one of my children telling me the same thing for the 10th time, or being kind to someone who has been unkind to me without expecting something in return.
If our society, if our world is falling apart, it's because we have forgotten that it is people who make our world what it is. And each perons in this world has value. If we don't invest in others, our soceity will self-destruct.
How Shall We Then Live - Part Two
(Graduatin speech continued)
So, how are you going to live your life? What kind of person are you going to be?
When my daughter was born, we put a lot of thought into what to name her. Her name is one my husband and I put together. "Anna" means "grace" and "lyn" (spelled slightly differently in Welsh) is a word that means "a rushing stream or waterfall". When she was a baby, I made a plaque to put on her wall. It had the meaning of her name, and it had some Scripture verses, one from Isaiah 55:1 which says "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;" and from John 7:37, 38 "Jesus stood up and cried out, "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'".
We chose that name for our daughter, because we wanted her to remember every time she heard her name that God's grace is what she needs every day, and that the thirst of her soul can only be quenched by Jesus Christ. And this is true of all of us.
We are all thirsty in our souls, and our greatest temptation every day of our lives is to try to quench that thirst with anything we can think of but God, whether it be success, money, clothes, power, or prestige. The truth is that God is our source of satisfaction and all other things in life must revolve around our relationship with Him.
One of my dear friends passed away about this time a few years ago. To the world's standards, he died a failure. He had spent the first 45 years of his life trying to satisfy the needs of his heart with relationships, sex, hobbies, work, money and alcohol. But it all failed him. One day, he was taken to the hospital and died on the operating table in the emergency room. He had overdosed on something, and the doctors were ready to send him to the morgue when suddenly he came back to life. He told me, "When I died, I was not a Christian. When I woke, I was a Christian." He only lived another 5 years. At first, not much changed after his brush with death, and even to the casual observer, his faith in Christ seemed nothing more than an outward profession. He had been an alcoholic before, and he was still and alcoholic.
Within a year, he started connnecting with other believers, and his faith in Christ began to grow. he found a church and started meeting with a pastor who encouraged him to get some help with his alcohol addiction. He finally quit drinking, but sadly, the damage that had been done was so bad there was no hope for a physical recovery. He spent most of the last nine months of his life in a hospital bed dying of cancer brought on by decades of drinking. In those last months, we talked a lot, and our conversations would usually turn to the Lord. He would tell me how much he loved God, and then he would say "God has never let me down."
How could someone who was lying in bed in excruciating pain and dying of cancer which was brought on by his own foolishness say with such conviction, "God has never let me down."
In the last days of his life, my friend had finally learned how to live. he had developed a relationship with God. He was drinking from the foundation of living water, and his soul was being satisfied.
If we want to know how to live, we must make loving God the number one priority in our lives and learn to run to Him first and drink deeply when we feel thirst in our souls.
So, how are you going to live your life? What kind of person are you going to be?
When my daughter was born, we put a lot of thought into what to name her. Her name is one my husband and I put together. "Anna" means "grace" and "lyn" (spelled slightly differently in Welsh) is a word that means "a rushing stream or waterfall". When she was a baby, I made a plaque to put on her wall. It had the meaning of her name, and it had some Scripture verses, one from Isaiah 55:1 which says "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;" and from John 7:37, 38 "Jesus stood up and cried out, "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'".
We chose that name for our daughter, because we wanted her to remember every time she heard her name that God's grace is what she needs every day, and that the thirst of her soul can only be quenched by Jesus Christ. And this is true of all of us.
We are all thirsty in our souls, and our greatest temptation every day of our lives is to try to quench that thirst with anything we can think of but God, whether it be success, money, clothes, power, or prestige. The truth is that God is our source of satisfaction and all other things in life must revolve around our relationship with Him.
One of my dear friends passed away about this time a few years ago. To the world's standards, he died a failure. He had spent the first 45 years of his life trying to satisfy the needs of his heart with relationships, sex, hobbies, work, money and alcohol. But it all failed him. One day, he was taken to the hospital and died on the operating table in the emergency room. He had overdosed on something, and the doctors were ready to send him to the morgue when suddenly he came back to life. He told me, "When I died, I was not a Christian. When I woke, I was a Christian." He only lived another 5 years. At first, not much changed after his brush with death, and even to the casual observer, his faith in Christ seemed nothing more than an outward profession. He had been an alcoholic before, and he was still and alcoholic.
Within a year, he started connnecting with other believers, and his faith in Christ began to grow. he found a church and started meeting with a pastor who encouraged him to get some help with his alcohol addiction. He finally quit drinking, but sadly, the damage that had been done was so bad there was no hope for a physical recovery. He spent most of the last nine months of his life in a hospital bed dying of cancer brought on by decades of drinking. In those last months, we talked a lot, and our conversations would usually turn to the Lord. He would tell me how much he loved God, and then he would say "God has never let me down."
How could someone who was lying in bed in excruciating pain and dying of cancer which was brought on by his own foolishness say with such conviction, "God has never let me down."
In the last days of his life, my friend had finally learned how to live. he had developed a relationship with God. He was drinking from the foundation of living water, and his soul was being satisfied.
If we want to know how to live, we must make loving God the number one priority in our lives and learn to run to Him first and drink deeply when we feel thirst in our souls.
How Shall We Then Live? Part One
The following is my address to a small group of homeschooled high school graduates (minus my introductions). Because of it's length, I will post in series over a few days.
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of upheaval, civil unrest and change. It's the world in which I grew up. We faced the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War, drugs, the crumbling of society, the decay of the church, the breakdown of public education, race riots, the assassination of Kennedy, and Woodstock. I can remember as a small child driving into Chicago with my parents for a visit to the doctor and having to take a detour around a certain part of town because Martin Luther King, Jr. was speaking, and there were open riots in the streets. My sister, in her freshman year of high school had to keep her lunch under lock and key and guard it while she ate, because students were dropping LSD into other student's food. One summer, construction workers arrived at the public elementary school I attended and smashed down the interior walls. The next fall students were subjected to the new experiment of "open classrooms". In 5th grade, I was chosen to be an experiment for "individualized math" which was nothing more than a free hour to goof off in school every day while my fellow students actually learned something.
Even so, as a child and a teen, I was almost oblivious to what was going on around me. My parents pulled me out of the public school system when I was 12 years old and put me and my sisters in a private Christian school. Ours was one of the first Christian (protestant) schools in Illinois. My mother and father, who loved God first above all things, were willing to do what they believed was the right thing for their children in the face of opposition...and there was great opposition to private Christian schools in those days. The graduates of my high school and other schools like it became the pioneers of the home school movement. Some of the parents sitting in this room are part of my generation, and they, like my parents, in the face of opposition, forged forward and choose the education they believed to be the best for their children. If it were not for their efforts, we would not be here tonight.
Each era has its challenges, but some seem to be worse than others. Again, we are staring in the face of an evil age, and one far worse in many ways than what my generation faced, because the restraints of evil which were securely in place when I was a child have been thrown off, and men and women seem to feel no shame at doing whatever they please no matter how wicked it is. Goodness seems to be dying. Where are the righteous?
Tonight, you will walk out that door and officially being your life as an adult. Soon you will make choices about your career, your education, your politics and your relationships. You will decide where to live, where to go to church; but none of these decisions will make any difference in the long run if you haven't answered the question: "How Shall We Then Live?"
This question is the title of a book by Francis Schaeffer written during the great upheavals of the 1960s and 70s. I have to admit, I've never read it completely, but the title haunted me for years. As I faced the world around me, as I faced the decisions of life: who to marry, where to go to school, where to live, where to work, it was a question for which I needed an answer. And it is the question for which you need an answer. Because the Word of God teaches us that this world and all that is in it, is nothing more than place to hang our hats for a little while. It is who we are and what we do while we are here that matters.
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of upheaval, civil unrest and change. It's the world in which I grew up. We faced the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War, drugs, the crumbling of society, the decay of the church, the breakdown of public education, race riots, the assassination of Kennedy, and Woodstock. I can remember as a small child driving into Chicago with my parents for a visit to the doctor and having to take a detour around a certain part of town because Martin Luther King, Jr. was speaking, and there were open riots in the streets. My sister, in her freshman year of high school had to keep her lunch under lock and key and guard it while she ate, because students were dropping LSD into other student's food. One summer, construction workers arrived at the public elementary school I attended and smashed down the interior walls. The next fall students were subjected to the new experiment of "open classrooms". In 5th grade, I was chosen to be an experiment for "individualized math" which was nothing more than a free hour to goof off in school every day while my fellow students actually learned something.
Even so, as a child and a teen, I was almost oblivious to what was going on around me. My parents pulled me out of the public school system when I was 12 years old and put me and my sisters in a private Christian school. Ours was one of the first Christian (protestant) schools in Illinois. My mother and father, who loved God first above all things, were willing to do what they believed was the right thing for their children in the face of opposition...and there was great opposition to private Christian schools in those days. The graduates of my high school and other schools like it became the pioneers of the home school movement. Some of the parents sitting in this room are part of my generation, and they, like my parents, in the face of opposition, forged forward and choose the education they believed to be the best for their children. If it were not for their efforts, we would not be here tonight.
Each era has its challenges, but some seem to be worse than others. Again, we are staring in the face of an evil age, and one far worse in many ways than what my generation faced, because the restraints of evil which were securely in place when I was a child have been thrown off, and men and women seem to feel no shame at doing whatever they please no matter how wicked it is. Goodness seems to be dying. Where are the righteous?
Tonight, you will walk out that door and officially being your life as an adult. Soon you will make choices about your career, your education, your politics and your relationships. You will decide where to live, where to go to church; but none of these decisions will make any difference in the long run if you haven't answered the question: "How Shall We Then Live?"
This question is the title of a book by Francis Schaeffer written during the great upheavals of the 1960s and 70s. I have to admit, I've never read it completely, but the title haunted me for years. As I faced the world around me, as I faced the decisions of life: who to marry, where to go to school, where to live, where to work, it was a question for which I needed an answer. And it is the question for which you need an answer. Because the Word of God teaches us that this world and all that is in it, is nothing more than place to hang our hats for a little while. It is who we are and what we do while we are here that matters.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Whose World is it Anyway?
“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” Revelation 11:15
I’ve been following national and international news lately, and frankly, I find it worse than depressing. The price of gold is higher than it’s ever been, unemployment rates are in double digits. The cost of everything is rising rapidly. Yesterday, I walked into a local store to buy something that just two days before had cost $0.82. It was now $1.50. I questioned the cashier, and she said, “I wondered why everyone stopped buying that.”
Our government is passing legislation that 10 years ago most of the population would have opposed. Our nation is engaged in multiple wars in the Middle East. And let’s not forget tyranny, death and destruction across the globe. The church is weak. Professing Christians act more like pagans than a lot of the pagans. All of this makes my heart ache. I am tempted to fall down in despair and wonder who’s in charge.
To look around, it appears that the enemy of our souls is completely in charge. It looks like the Church is being defeated, and that evil will win the day. But when we read Revelation 11, we find that God knew about this all along. Here the 24 elders cry out in worship--
To look around, it appears that the enemy of our souls is completely in charge. It looks like the Church is being defeated, and that evil will win the day. But when we read Revelation 11, we find that God knew about this all along. Here the 24 elders cry out in worship--
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,who is and who was,
for you have taken your great powerand begun to reign.
The nations raged,but your wrath came,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants,
the prophets and saints,and those who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
For some reason, and in God’s large and grand purpose, He is going to allow the enemy freedom to destroy the earth. That however, is not the last chapter. It is the chapter before the last chapter. These things must come to pass before the judgment. We ought not to fear, but to take heart. The kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ will come, and He will reign for ever and ever. The scriptures also teach us that we will reign with Him.
So, take heart, the last chapter is already written. The enemy of our souls has already lost. We must go forward, pray, share the Gospel and live like children of the Great King whom we serve.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
"For such a time as this"
The book of Esther (found in the Old Testament) recounts the true story of a beautiful young Jewish girl who is taken from her uncle Mordecai, her guardian, into the harem of King Ahasuerus. After months of preparation, Esther is taken before the king, and he quickly falls in love with her and makes her his queen.
Not long after, Mordecai learns that one of the king's most powerful men, Haman, is plotting to exterminate all the Jews in the kingdom. Mordecai notifies Esther of Haman's plan and begs her to petition the king on behalf of her people. To do so, would mean Esther would have to go before the king without being summoned. Esther replies to Mordecai, that if she were to do that, she risked losing the king's favor as well as her life.
Mordecai answered back, "For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Esther sent word back to Mordecai that she would pray and fast, then go before the king. Her final thought was, "If I perish, I perish." Esther prayed and fasted, then went before the king without being summoned, and she won his favor. In the end, Haman was killed, and the Jewish people were saved.
It was a horrible thing for Esther to be taken from her home as a young lady and banished to the harem of the king for the rest of her life. It was risky to go against the king's wishes. In short, the circumstances were not stacked in Esther's favor, and yet God placed her in those circumstances so an entire nation could be saved.
Recently I was talking to a friend about the difficult times in which we are living. The economy is bad, people are losing jobs, houses are foreclosing, the world is in turmoil. I t looks like we are heading into the worst depression this nation has ever faced, and war or revolution is probably just around the corner. It's down right depressing if you think about it too long. As we continued to talk, my friend reminded me of something her grandfather used to say, "You were made for your time." In other words, God didn't just drop us into existence in 2009, He made us just for the time in which we are living. My parents grew up during WWII, and my grandparents survived the Great Depression, and God gave them what they needed to survive it. It is no different for us.
How does that play out for us? How are we to live? Knowing that God made us for our time means that we need to readily accept from God's hand whatever He brings our way knowing it will ultimately accomplish His purposes. It means that we need to take our eyes off the misery and woe of our times and fix our eyes on God knowing nothing will come our way that hasn't passed through His hand first. It means we should get on our hands and knees and like Esther fast and pray and repent of our evil ways and believe in our God who never fails.
Ultimately, it is a privilege to live in the time in which we live, because we were made for it. If we cower and hide instead of trusting our God and boldly facing what He brings to us, we will miss out on the blessing. We will miss out on the closeness we could have had with Him.
God made us and put us here "for such a time as this".
Not long after, Mordecai learns that one of the king's most powerful men, Haman, is plotting to exterminate all the Jews in the kingdom. Mordecai notifies Esther of Haman's plan and begs her to petition the king on behalf of her people. To do so, would mean Esther would have to go before the king without being summoned. Esther replies to Mordecai, that if she were to do that, she risked losing the king's favor as well as her life.
Mordecai answered back, "For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Esther sent word back to Mordecai that she would pray and fast, then go before the king. Her final thought was, "If I perish, I perish." Esther prayed and fasted, then went before the king without being summoned, and she won his favor. In the end, Haman was killed, and the Jewish people were saved.
It was a horrible thing for Esther to be taken from her home as a young lady and banished to the harem of the king for the rest of her life. It was risky to go against the king's wishes. In short, the circumstances were not stacked in Esther's favor, and yet God placed her in those circumstances so an entire nation could be saved.
Recently I was talking to a friend about the difficult times in which we are living. The economy is bad, people are losing jobs, houses are foreclosing, the world is in turmoil. I t looks like we are heading into the worst depression this nation has ever faced, and war or revolution is probably just around the corner. It's down right depressing if you think about it too long. As we continued to talk, my friend reminded me of something her grandfather used to say, "You were made for your time." In other words, God didn't just drop us into existence in 2009, He made us just for the time in which we are living. My parents grew up during WWII, and my grandparents survived the Great Depression, and God gave them what they needed to survive it. It is no different for us.
How does that play out for us? How are we to live? Knowing that God made us for our time means that we need to readily accept from God's hand whatever He brings our way knowing it will ultimately accomplish His purposes. It means that we need to take our eyes off the misery and woe of our times and fix our eyes on God knowing nothing will come our way that hasn't passed through His hand first. It means we should get on our hands and knees and like Esther fast and pray and repent of our evil ways and believe in our God who never fails.
Ultimately, it is a privilege to live in the time in which we live, because we were made for it. If we cower and hide instead of trusting our God and boldly facing what He brings to us, we will miss out on the blessing. We will miss out on the closeness we could have had with Him.
God made us and put us here "for such a time as this".
Monday, February 23, 2009
Are You Thirsty?
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1
Have you ever been thirsty? I'm not talking about the mild thirst you have when it's been two hours since you had anything to drink. I'm talking about the kind of thirst you have when you've been outside working all day and forgot to bring some water with you. I remember being really thirsty once.
A friend of mine and I decided one day to go to a local state park for a short hike. We had all day, but were only thinking about being out for an hour or so. When we arrived at the entrance to the hiking trails, we found a sign that marked out three trails. The first was about 3/4 of a mile (a one hour hike). I don't remember the length of the second, but the third hike was 1.5 miles. The sign said the hike would take 4 hours.
I laughed when I read the sign. Four hours? The other trail said it would take one hour, and I'd hiked it many times, it never took more than 30 minutes. "That sign must be wrong," I said. "How could it take four hours to hike 1.5 miles?" We opted for the longer trail.
We took off at a comfortable pace making great time. We rounded a bend and suddenly the trail got steeper and steeper and steeper. It looked like it was going straight up. Our quick pace soon slowed down to a serious crawl. The day grew warmer and the hike seemed to never come to an end. We stopped several times to catch our breath. By the time we reached the summit (yes, the trail was up the side of a small mountain), we were hot, sweaty and very thirsty. Two and a half hours had passed, and we still had to go back down. As we neared the end of the trail, we came to a mossy spot on a rock that looked out over the mountains. The view was breath-taking, but we could not enjoy it. We sat down to rest trying not to think of how thirsty we were.
Just then some hikers turned the corner and one of them called out my name. I couldn't believe it. There stood a friend of mine and her boyfriend. She immediately assessed our situation and asked, "Didn't you bring any food or water?" "No," I replied, a little embarrassed. She then opened up her back pack and pulled out two bottles of water and some snacks. "Here" she said, "I brought extras. We don't need them." It didn't take us long to finish off the water. It was one of the best drinks of water I've ever had.
I've experienced another type of thirst that can't be quenched with water. It was not a physical thirst, but an inner thirst, a longing to know God. No bottle of water could quench that thirst.
John's Gospel tells us that one day Jesus went to the well at Samaria. When He was there, He met a woman who was drawing water from the well. He told her that He could offer living water. If she drank it, she would never thirst again. He was speaking to her of the water of life that only God can give.
Are you thirsty in your soul? Isaiah says, "Come everyone who is thirsty. Come to the waters" Drink and live. If you are thirsty, come. If you long to know God, come. He will quench the thirst you feel.
On the day we hiked up the mountain, our thirst was temporarily quenched. We hiked back down the mountain (It did take an entire 4 hours to complete the hike.), and by the time we reached the bottom, we were thirsty again. God quenched my inner thirst, and it is for eternity.
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