I Need a Drink

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst...John 4:14A

Post Hole Digger. Just the sound of that particular farm tool makes me start sweating and causes the upper trapezius muscles to tighten. Here in the south, the only PhD that impresses us has two handles and digs a deep hole. If some smarty-pants individual starts signing his name with a "PhD" after it, somebody is apt to call him a post hole digger, just to keep him humble.

I have mentioned the oppressive heat of the deep south before; nothing compares to an August day with upper 90's and humidity thick enough to see. Some call it the heat index, I call it the misery index. When you read of people dropping like flies in some of our northern cities because of a ‘heat wave’, this is just another day in paradise down here in Alabama.

Now, constructing a new fence line in this kind of heat is a different matter altogether. I remember a particular stretch of fence very well, and you will soon see why. My dad, along with my brother and I (both teenagers at the time) had loaded the pickup with creosote fence posts, a new roll of barbed wire, (called 'bobwar' in the Wiregrass) our trusty PHD and dirt tamper, fence stretcher, staples, etc and we were off for another glorious afternoon of fun in the Alabama sun.

Digging post holes is a tedious task. Summer will make the Alabama red clay hard as Elly May’s biscuits, and it usually requires a tag team effort. The muscles in your neck and shoulders feel like they are on fire. After a turn of progressing a full half a foot, I moseyed over to the truck to get a drink. We had everything on the truck to build a fence, but had forgotten the Igloo water cooler. Now my thirst jumped from moderate to full fledged dehydration. A few more turns at the PHD and I couldn’t stand it.

"Pop, I am going down to the creek bottom, I am 'bout to die!" I complained. So off I took, and finding that cool water so inviting, I got down on all fours and literally sucked in a gallon. Oh the heavenly taste of that water; if you can remember a time that you were the thirstiest in your life, and how water tasted when you were able to satisfy that desire, this was that time for me!

As I walked back up the hill through the woods, I couldn’t wait to tell my brother that relief was just down the hill. Funny thing happened on the return hike though. My lips felt like they were on fire. I mean Tabasco Sauce fire. Now I had the Hades heat of an Alabama August to deal with and what felt like a coating of nuclear- flavored Chap Stick.

"What happened to your lips, boy?" inquired my dad.
"Dunno, why?"
"Looks like someone stuck a red hot plunger on your face." my brother laughed.
"I just got a drink..."
"Where were the cows, Mark?" again my dad asked.
"Ummm...they were standing in the water a little ways.....ummm...upstream."

OK, now can you imagine how quickly the conclusion to this escapade came together? Head shaking, eye rolling, laughing...you name it. The burning just got worse as the afternoon slowly rolled by. After we returned home, I looked in the mirror ...so picture a red bullseye imbedded concentrically around your lips, you have a pretty good idea of what I looked like. I must have emptied a jar of Vasoline over the next few days; it is a wonder that I didn’t contract E coli and keel over.

It was the thirst that drove me to this. I am reminded of one of my favorite encounters of a thirsty Jesus as told in John 4, with much better results, mind you. Stopping by a well to rest, Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for water and then tells her that He can give her living water. A curious statement to pique her interest, no doubt. She eventually "gets it" and this woman who had five husbands becomes one of the first evangelists of the Gospel. There are a number of things that have struck me about this exchange.

The Jews and the Samaritans hated one another. Jesus rose above it. The hatred was so intense, that for Jesus to ask a Samaritan, and a woman to boot, to give him a drink was anathema. Yet He looked beyond the bitter divisiveness of these two groups and the obvious cultural taboos in order to share the loving truth with her.

Jesus tells her that everyone who drinks form this well will thirst again, but He could give her living water and she would never thirsts again. Still clueless, she makes a totally selfish response, "Tell me how to get this stuff so I won’t have to keep coming here to draw water." She sounds no different than me at times, actually. Christ doesn’t give up. Finally He reveals a slight personal problem of hers: A 5 time loser and now living with another man. She starts to put it together, "Sir I perceive you are a prophet." It is a testimony for us not to give up on others.

Jesus reveals that He is the Messiah, and the disciples show up, amazed the scripture says, (rather annoyed, inwardly grumbling, I think) about this whole situation. Never mind that the woman simply drops the water pot and goes into the city proclaiming that Jesus told her everything about herself and asks, "Is this not the Christ?" Like I have already stated, one of the first evangelists is a woman of bad reputation. Many Samaritans become believers because of the testimony of this woman. The disciples seem more concerned about this breach in their religious belief system, yet God chose to use a woman with a questionable background to spread the love of Christ.

Oh...it all goes back to the water, an analogy so simple, for we all know that it is the sustenance to maintain life on this planet. So Christ offers living water, the kind that will sustain us in this life and in eternity. May our spirits thirst for Him as much as our bodies crave water to maintain physical life!

I constantly check my heart to see if I am missing opportunities to share that living water with others , because they may not fit my cultural mores. Time and again, Christ gave us the roadmap to resist the rote traditions and thirst for the real living water, and unlike the stagnent pool of religion, this refreshment will never leave a sting or burn on your body or soul...or lips!

Mark
Prov 17:22