Water!

"Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Last year a couple friends of mine decided to take a summer road trip, similar to the large scale road trips that I've done in the past. I made a few "road trip music" CD's for them, thinking that the music might not even get played because, really, how many people actually share my eclectic tastes in music? Well, when they returned from their cross country drive, they laughed when they told me about driving their convertible through the Mojave desert in the middle of the day and how hot it was, and then the CD that I had given them brought up the song "Cool Water" (you can just hear it now ... "Coooool, clear water ... (echo) water ... (echo) water....")

Till taught by pain,
Men really know not what good water's worth;
If you had been in Turkey or in Spain,
Or with a famish'd boat's-crew had your berth,
Or in the desert heard the camel's bell,
You'd wish yourself where Truth is--in a well.
- Byron from Don Juan

A former pastor once taught that, in the Bible, water often symbolizes the Holy Spirit. I won't lecture on that topic here ... there are plenty of theologians who do a good job with that topic (and some not so good...) Instead, I want to use that idea as a launch pad.

"You could write the story of man's growth in terms of his epic concerns with water." - Bernard Frank

As I consider going into a third world area to do ministry, I recall that water is often spoken of as the most important topic in considerations effecting developing nations and nations ... that if we could get clean and sufficient quantities of water to everyone on the face of the earth, many of the world's problems would be on the way to being solved. I can't verify that statement, but it certainly makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

"When the well's dry, we know the worth of water." - Benjamin Franklin

And I have been thinking about it. It has been one of the things in the back of my mind as I have considered my move to Colorado next month. I have spent my entire life on the East Coast in areas where there has always been plenty of water. Sometimes even too much water.

"Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over." - attributed to Mark Twain

Now I want to look at water with the idea of the Holy Spirit in the back of my mind. My personal devotions lately have been from the book of Exodus. To name just a few places in Exodus where water is important ... The first plague to hit the Egyptians was when the Lord turned the Nile River into blood, in fact all of the water in the jars throughout the country was turned to blood and the people were reduced to digging holes in the ground to find water to survive ... When the Israelites were first fleeing Egypt the Lord took them toward the Red Sea and at first the water was perceived to be a barrier. But with the Egyptians in hot pursuit, God opened a path through the water, described as being like walls of water to their right and to their left. The walls of water then fell on the Egyptians, drowning every one in Pharaoh's army ... Soon thereafter, the Israelites came upon waters at a place called Marah, but the waters were bitter. The Lord had Moses use a piece of wood to miraculously sweeten the water for drinking ... and again, at Massah and Meribah, the Lord used Moses to strike a rock and bring forth water where there had been none. (And remember, the people of Israel were numbered well over a million ... thus I'm sure that no little trickle of water came out of that rock!) Just in those references, water is sustenance for daily living yet can be a barrier to travel (or escape) and was used to eliminate opposition. The Holy Spirit is my sustenance, and those without access to Him will surely die. The Holy Spirit is powerful and can block my way or open a path for me. The Holy Spirit can also crush the opposition to His purposes for my life.

"Water is a very good servant, but it is a cruel master." - C.G.D. Roberts, Adrift in America

I'm sure that I could hit many other parts of Scripture and come up with similar parallels. I won't ... because, again, I am no theologian.

"Filthy water cannot be washed." - African Proverb

But I would also like to point out some extra-Biblical examples.

When having conversations with my students about the need to drink more water, they often (VERY often!) will say, "But I don't LIKE water!" I always tell them that this only proves that they don't get enough of it.

There are many people who are "afraid of water". And rightly so, as water is extremely powerful!

Water becomes stagnant when it stops flowing. It is this stagnant water that provides optimal breeding places for creatures like mosquitos that carry diseases like malaria and dengue fever. It is also is a great incubator for bacteria and parasites and is thus very dangerous to drink.

I grew up near Niagara Falls and have been there many times in my life. During every single visit to The Falls, I have always been struck with the thought: "WOW! That is an incredible amount of water!" It is illegal to enter the rapids and go over Niagara Falls.

The source of the "Mighty Mississippi River" is a small lake in Minnesota, Lake Itasca, narrow enough that summer tourists walk across it at the channel that forms the Mississippi headwaters. Have you seen the Mississippi River farther south where its power and great width are astounding?

Water supports giant ships as large as cities that are capable of floating on the surface.

An oasis in a desert area is considered an aesthetically beautiful sight. Why?

Water is used to put out fires, great and small. Fires started in a controlled cooking fire or raging out of control wildfires.

Only 2 percent of the world's water is fresh. That means that 98 percent of the world's water is salt water that does NOT provide the sustenance that we human beings need from water in its most basic form. By the way, did you ever wonder why in the movies they make a big deal about spitting out salt water when they are dying of thirst and come upon a small stream or something? Why not just taste a tiny bit and say, "it's not good" instead of all of the drama? :-)

Many of the creatures that God made on the fifth day of creation only live in bodies of water. That's how they were designed.

Weather systems that are considered powerful and dangerous involve moving water. Consider snowstorms (yes, I grew up in Buffalo), hurricanes, and tornados all of which can eventually lead to destructive flooding.

Even if you own the land through which a river flows, you don't necessarily have the rights to do whatever you like with the water. Those who live upriver have the potential for great impact and great harm to those who live farther downriver.

Without getting into any old earth vs. new earth creation arguments, it is said that many of the great landforms of the earth, such as the Grand Canyon, were carved by years and years of water flowing over rock.

Consider the music of water. The calming sounds of the waves on a lake, the babbling of a brook, the rushing sounds of a strong river, the beating of the waves against the shores of the ocean.

"Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet." - African Proverb

As Americans I think that it is easy to forget how important water is to our daily lives. Personally, I LOVE drinking water. I try to drink several large glasses of it every day. Think also that water is the key element in our sanitation systems. Most of us take a shower every single day and also use water to wash our hands several times a day. I use water to help me swallow pills. And, really, we all know that Starbucks uses water to make our coffee (and McDonalds for the iced coffee). Who could survive without THAT?!

"Don't empty the water jar until the rain falls." - Philippine proverb

In my ABF (adult Sunday School) class last week, the teacher spoke of the summer time and our need to refresh ourselves. Water was the key to his lesson.

"Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes - one for peace and one for science." - John F. Kennedy

Our spiritual need for the Holy Spirit and the physical need for water surely do have many parallels. As I go into a land where there is great lack of both the Holy Spirit and drinkable water, I pray that God will use me to help fill needs wherever they may be. Oh, and in the meantime, get ahold of the song "Healing Rain" by Michael W. Smith and have a listen....

"All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again." - Ecclesiastes 1:7

"You visit the earth and cause it to overflow; You greatly enrich it; The stream of God is full of water; You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth." - Psalm 65:9