Stay Hydrated!

 “...my soul thirsts for you.” (Psalm 63:1)

As a chaplain in a community of people where many are at high risk of serious complications from COVID, I am required to wear a mask when interacting with the people I serve. While I don’t love it, neither do I mind wearing the mask. Except when they serve liver and onions for lunch. Then I’m sorry I have to wear a mask because I’m confronted with my own bad breath.

One thing I have discovered is that I get thirsty when I wear a mask all day. I think it’s because I drink less water throughout the day. So at the end of the day, I find myself parched. I feel like I have to gulp down a couple of glasses of water.

Aaaah, so refreshing! It’s amazing how good water tastes when I’m thirsty.

Humans can survive a long time without food. But water, not so much. Water, it seems, is critical for our survival. Things get out of balance in our body quickly when we don’t drink enough water. Lack of water affects our kidneys, our heart, our muscles. 

I used to roll my eyes at people who carried around their water bottles and constantly refilled them throughout the day. Not anymore. 

Stay hydrated. It’s really important.

Thirst is a good metaphor for what happens to the soul. I’m not the first person to think so. My good friend David said it a long time ago: 

O God, you are my God, I seek you,
    my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

(Psalm 63:1)

I don’t know about you, but I find that my daily quiet times are like going to a well and drinking water that refreshes and renews my spirit. Conversely, on days when I skip my quiet time or neglect my prayer life, I feel out of sorts. My spirit is off-kilter a bit. At the end of such days, I realize that I have failed to tend to the most basic need of my soul: I have neglected my relationship with God.

The human soul is restless, longing to be filled. People are thirsty. Some look to quench their thirst by pursuing wealth, or by consolidating power, or by engaging in charitable work, or some other way. But there is only one way to quench the thirst of our soul. Rather, there is only one Person who can quench the thirst of our soul: Jesus.

To a woman who was thirsty because of circumstances in her life – some of her own choosing, some of which were imposed upon her by her culture and world – Jesus said, “Those who drink of the water I give them will never be thirsty. The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

I agree with Jesus. That shouldn’t surprise you. Apart from Jesus, my soul never finds satisfaction for its thirst. When I turn to Jesus in faith, when I follow Jesus as my Lord, my soul is full. 

I do take issue with Jesus on one thing, though. Once I have drunk of the water that he gives to me, I find myself wanting more and more. So in that regard I remain thirsty.

Only, now I know where I can find the well that never dries up.

Stay hydrated, my friends!

Sacred Thirst

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; 

     I thirst for you, 

my whole being longs for you, 

    in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 

I have seen you in the sanctuary 

     and beheld your power and your glory. 

Because your love is better than life, 

     my lips will glorify you.

(Psalm 63:1-3)

Thank you, O Lord, for awakening in me

an unquenchable thirst.

If there is a silver lining in this pandemic

(and of course there is, 

because you are always working

all things 

for the good 

for those who love you),

then it is this:

It has turned countless hearts toward you.

And in these turbulent and troubling days,

my own heart is more and more urgent

in seeking you.

Earnestly I seek you, Lord;

     I thirst for you,

my whole being longs for you,

     as in a dry and parched land 

     where there is no water.

You, Lord, have shown me your goodness

in more ways than I can count.

You, Lord, have graced me with your presence,

and given me glimpses of your glory.

Every day, if only I have eyes to notice.

Having tasted of your goodness and mercy,

I long for more and more.

I find this to be true:

     In you I find satisfaction 

     for the thirst of my soul.

But I also find this to be true:

     The more of you that feeds my soul,

     the more I want, the more I need.

Today, I turn my heart toward you.

Today, I seek you.

Today, I will cling to you.

Today, I will praise you,

that others may find the same satisfaction 

and the same thirst

of a heart turned toward you.

Thank you, O Lord, for awakening in me

an unquenchable thirst.

Amen.

During the season of Lent, I am "Praying with David", using prayers in the psalms as inspiration for personal prayers.

Advent Waiting

“My heart says of You, ‘Seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, I will seek.” (Psalm 27:8)

As a pastor, I always feel a tension with the world around me when it comes to observing Advent. Everyone is in such a rush to get to Christmas – as soon as Halloween was over (even before), stores were changing their decorations to reflect Christmas. And the Hallmark Channels have had non-stop Christmas movies since the middle of October.

“But what about Advent?”, I protest.

Christmas is about remembering – remembering that God assumed human flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, to save us from our sin.

But Advent is about waiting:

• Waiting for Jesus to come again and usher in the Kingdom of Heaven once and for all.
• Waiting for the new heaven and the new earth foretold by the biblical writers, and promised by God.
• Waiting for that time to come when we will no longer see dimly, as a poor reflection in a mirror, but will see God face to face – and experience his grace and glory in all their fulness.

Advent waiting is not a tapping-our-feet kind of impatient waiting. Nor is it a looking-at-our-watch kind of waiting. No, Advent waiting is informed by a deep longing in our hearts, much like the kind of longing we encounter in the Psalms:

“My whole being thirsts for God, for the living God.When will I come and see God’s face?” (Psalm 42:2)

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,and in his word I put my hope.My soul waits for the Lordmore than watchmen wait for the morning,more than watchmen wait for the morning.” (Psalm 130:5-6)

“My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’Your face, Lord, I will seek.” (Psalm 27:8)

How would you describe your Advent waiting? How deep is the longing in your heart?

Our cat (actually our daughter’s cat that we’re fostering while she’s in graduate school) loves to be with us. Only, he’s not content to be by our side or on our lap; he has to be in our face, literally. It gives a whole new meaning to “seek his face!”. Really, the way Ray persists in getting in our face is endearing – and it shows me something of the kind of persistence I should have in my heart as I seek God.

Advent waiting is active. It is living today as if the promised new heaven and new earth is already a done deal; and, in fact, we should assume that it is a done deal, because it is God’s promise to us. And God is faithful. Always.

So live today as if the tomorrow for which we hope has already come. Live, as the apostle Peter urges, “holy and godly lives as you wait eagerly for the day of God to come.” (2 Peter 3:11-12)

You see, the beauty of our waiting is this: as we await the day when we will see God face to face, God gives us glimpses of his grace and glory today.

“Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

Look for the Lord. You will find him.

Wait for the Lord. He will come.

Taking a Water Break

“O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you; like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land, my soul is thirsty for you.” (Psalm 63:1, Good News Bible)

The other day I was putting together activities and a lesson for our church youth group. Since it was the Sunday before Lent, I decided to do some things that help drive home the meaning of Lent. So, of course, I made them play a game in which they had to dab their noses with vaseline and then take cotton balls – on their nose – to the other side of the room, without using their hands.

Sounds like Lent to me.

Well, at least it sounds like youth ministry.

At the end of the evening, we gathered around a table for a devotion. There were baskets of rocks, rice, and sponges on the table, and a bowl of water. We talked about how our hearts feel right now, as we enter the season of Lent. Maybe our hearts are excited about God, and they want to soak up as much of God as they can (sponge). Maybe our hearts are weighed down with troubles or worries (rock). Maybe our hearts are spiritually dry, parched (rice). I encouraged the youth to pick up one or more of the items on the table that reflect what’s going on in their hearts, and put it/them in the bowl of water. The water, of course, represented Jesus – the spring of living water.

During that little devotional exercise, I realized something: I am thirsty. Thirsty for God. As the deer longs for streams of water, so does my soul long for God, the living God (Psalm 42:1). My soul is thirsty for God (Psalm 63:1).

It got me to thinking, what makes a person thirsty? I have some empirical (but definitely not scientifically-proven) ideas about what makes a person thirsty. Sometimes it’s exercise, or over-exertion. After I have exercised, or after I have put in a long day of manual labor, I’m thirsty. I feel like there’s not enough water to quench my thirst.

Sometimes we get thirsty from what we eat. Salty things make me thirsty. When I eat pizza or popcorn, I inevitably wake up in the middle of the night with cotton mouth, parched.

And then, there’s just not getting enough to drink. That will make you thirsty, every time.

So, what does this have to do with Lent? Well, for me, it means that I want to take the next 40 days (not including Sundays) to address this thirst I have discovered within me.

I want to take care not to take on more than is healthy to take on, at least not without making sure I address my thirst along the way. So I’m going to try (key word: TRY) to manage my time a little better.

I’m also going to adjust my spiritual diet. If eating certain foods make me thirsty, then on the spiritual side it just makes sense that I’m doing things that drain the life-giving water out of me. So I’m going to cut back on social media – Facebook and Instagram, to be precise. And I’m going to cut out my mindless evening TV time.

And in their place, I’m going to spend more time drinking in what is important – reading, studying, praying, taking walks, spending quality time with Carol.

All this to say, I’m not going to post 40 different things on this blog this year. While I love sharing my faith and photography, this year I need to make my Lenten journey a quiet, personal one.

I’m thirsty, so I’m going to use my Lenten observance to take a water break.

Shalom.

Praying the Passion, Part 5 - "I Thirst"

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty."- John 19:28

My Lenten discipline has been to write a prayer for each of the 40 days of Lent. The last seven prayers center on the seven last sayings of Jesus uttered from the cross. This prayer is based on his fifth saying from the cross.

"I Thirst"

From the foot of the cross, I behold you, Lord:
  high and lifted up.
And I hear what you say from the cross.
  Every word.

Almost inaudibly, the words flow 
  from your cracked, bloodied lips: "I thirst."

Thirst. 
It is the most primal longing a human experiences.
You have joined our struggle, Lord.
You have experienced the most basic need
  any of us will ever experience: thirst.
As you hang on the cross,
  there is no human agony foreign to you.

Thirst.
It speaks to more than our physical longing.
It speaks, even more vividly, perhaps,
  to the longing of our soul:

O God, you are my God, I seek you;  my soul thirsts for you,my flesh faints for you,  as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Forsaken by God,
  you thirst.
You are experiencing the condition that I deserve,
  in order to redeem me. From my own thirst.

But may I be so bold as to consider another thirst, Lord?
Can it be that on the cross 
  you not only experience human thirst for God,
but also, maybe, are you expressing a thirst
  that God has for us?
For you have told us of the father who scans the horizon
  as if thirsting after reconciliation with his lost son;
and you have told us of the shepherd who searches
     high and low
  in deep longing to find the one lost sheep.

Could it be, dear Lord, that your thirst
  is for us to turn to you?

Either way, your thirst draws me to you.
Your thirst arises from your love.
And it makes me thirst for you,
  and for the life only you can give.

And so I thirst, too. Because you thirst.