Thirsting for the Lord

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." -John 4: 13-14

Thirst is something I'm thinking a lot about lately. The word comes up frequently in scripture in a literal sense as a thirst for water, and also a thirsting only God can quench. I think in my life I try too often when I am thirsty to turn to something besides that which will really quench it.

Scene: I'm at home and feeling thirsty, what to I do? Well, that depends on what time it is, but I'm most likely to grab a cup of coffee, a soda, a beer, or if I'm trying to be healthy maybe a tea or juice. It's most assuredly not water except for in the middle of the night when I have to have water by my bed.

Scene: I'm feeling a little low, a little bored, like something is missing. What do I do? Play with Will, turn on the tv, turn on the computer, go outside, work. I'm trying more and more to turn to God when I am thirsting for him, which is what that "something's misisng" thing really is, I think.

So my focus this Lent is to try to retrain myself to recognize thirst as what it truly is, a desire for something that my body (or my soul) truely needs, and to quench it with the appropriate thing as opposed to covering it up with a lesser substitute. In that effort I've given up drinking anything except for water while reading what the Bible says about thirst and turning to the one who will give me eternal life.

It's been on since Ash Wednesday last week. I went around and around on whether I would count Sundays as an exception and I know there are different thoughts on that but on the word of a deacon at church, I decided to have a cup of coffee with Brian yesterday morning. Today I'm back to water alone and find thoughts turning to God with much more frequency.