i Thirst

i Thirst.

Our bodies are created of 70% water, and most of us will agree that throughout the day at some point we are thirsty; thirsty for water, thirsty for life, thirsty for adventure, thirsty for fulfillment.  What is it that you long for? What is it that you fill yourself up with? This world has so many things that we can fill ourselves up with, many of which will leave us feeling even more empty or unfulfilled than before.  Have you ever had a craving, or a thirst, and searched high and low to quench it?  Like for example, some mornings I wake up and can't wait to get to work because there is coffee at work and I know that coffee will kickstart my day, only to be left feeling empty as I grab my cup to take a sip and it's already gone!  Our lives are often the same way, we feel as if we need something to make us 'feel' better or feel like something, that we are not enough.  

The truth is that we aren't enough.  Each of us are created with a God-shaped hole inside of us that needs to be filled by its Creator, and until it is, until we realize what life is worth, we are torn between drowning beneath the waves or dying from thirst.  It took me many years to realize my true thirst is for something that is unquenchable, my true thirst is for love; it is to be known and to be loved. When we are known and loved we experience this confidence, this truth that allows us to become the person that God has meant us to be. 

"To be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be known"

Yet love is not unquenchable, but should be sought out on a daily basis.  Relationships work because we put time into them, we sacrifice, we know that love is not about who we are or what we will become.  "Love is patient, love is kind, it is NOT jealous, it is NOT pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love NEVER fails" 1 Corinthians 13:4-8  We thirst because we are thirsty for love, we are disappointed or are left thirsty when we receive anything besides this.  

A great story that demonstrates this love and this thirst is the story of the woman at the well.  Ashamed and dubbed an outcast she went to the well at midday because she knew she wouldn't have to face the looks or condemnations of others.  How many times in life do we base our feelings or our 'happiness' on others?  On how they see us or how their day went?  We are all sinners, and until we accept that fact it's going to be hard to go forward.  We don't have to be sinners, but our fallen nature is surrounded by sin and our culture today is submersed in it.  Hollywood paints ideas of fantasies in our heads of what love should be, what relationships should look like, but they conveniently leave out the sacrifices necessary to love.  They paint the picture that love is messy, and yes sometimes it can be, but ultimately love is simple.  Love becomes complicated because we are a selfish people.  We often are self-seeking instead of self-denying.  Jesus was the master of self-denial.  It's not that he always wanted to (check garden of Gethsemane), but he knew that his purpose in this life was to love, to love even unto the point of death.

Right before Jesus died on the cross he said "I thirst".  He thirsts!  Just as you and I thirst!  He thirsted for Heaven, to be reunited with his Father, to unite ALL of us to himself.  He thirsts FOR YOU.  Yes, I said it, for you.  In 1 John 4:8 it says that "God is love" and if God is love, then God is patient and God is kind.  God is waiting for you at the well to give you living water, the question is are you ready to receive it? Are you ready to drink of this living water or will you continue to drink from other wells in your life?  I promise, because he first promised, that when you are ready to drink of this living water he will give it to you! 

Seek him.  Ask for the water to quench your thirst, that you may seek truth, goodness, and beauty in your life. That is his desire for you, that you may no longer be lost, or ashamed, or guilty, but that you may be set free!!!!