More Than a Water Break

Reflection

Years ago, during my soccer-playing days at Furman University, we were required to attend two practice sessions a day during preseason in August. If you know the Southeast in August, especially Greenville, South Carolina, you will know that it is hot, extremely hot. In fact, at times, it is triple-digit hot. If you are familiar with that kind of heat, you will also understand the type of thirst that accompanies prolonged hard work and physical exertion, as well as the desperation one feels while waiting for the next water break. I often joke that we were willing to walk on our knees over broken glass to get a little sip from the “water horses” that were carted out to the field during our water breaks. Although I did not appreciate or necessarily enjoy that aspect of the whole experience, there is something to be said for the sense of satisfaction one receives after savouring just a sip of that cool, refreshing, gloriously unfiltered water, despite it being served out of old wooden water vessels. It is the type of longing that I will likely never forget.

Application

In Psalm 42, the Psalmist invokes powerful imagery that illustrates this type of thirst. 

“1. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.” - Psalm 42:1

This raises the question that we, as believers, should all be asking ourselves.

Do we really, truly thirst for the Lord? The image of a deer panting creates a sense of desperation and urgency. Do I have a sense of urgency and desperation when I consider my quiet time with the Lord? Do I fervently seek after Him through prayer and the study of Scripture? 

Note how the psalmist describes this longing as a desire of his soul. Verse two further expands this idea.

“2. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” Psalm 42:2

This longing is not for an idea or a concept. The longing we are called to is a deeply rooted desire for a life-changing, transformational, restorative encounter with the “living God.” 

In the Gospel of John 4:13-14, in an encounter with a Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus stated:

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Unlike deer, whose access to the brook water has life-sustaining properties that last for just a few days, or a sip from the water horse that got me and my teammates through that portion of training, this access we are called to is an invitation into fellowship with our Lord in such a way as to quench our thirst for an eternity. 

May the Lord stir in you a soul-deep longing to have fellowship with Him today and every day. This is my prayer. 

Yours in Christ,

Brad