On Staying Thirsty

Watercolor study of a deer grazing

6" x 8"

Remember how thirsty you got as a kid on a hot July day playing outdoors?  Every pore in your body was drenching you in sweat and your mouth was caked dry.  The dominant thought demanding immediate response was to get some water fast!  The garden hose was fabulous for instant refreshing with cold water being gulped and splashed everywhere.

Being thirsty is a condition we should maintain for the rest of our lives.  The thirst I speak of is not one of physical desire to stay hydrated.  As humans, we are designed for so much more than just the daily grind of working, eating, and sleeping.  Something in us seeks to reach beyond that to find deeper meaning and significance in life. This is the thirst we are encouraged to maintain, to not settle for "the ordinary of the everydayness of things".  It is an ardent desire for what is sustaining and great in life.  It is about satisfying the thirst in your soul.  

  

"Deer in Yellowstone River"

8" x 10"

Pastel

All too often we settle for just plugging away at life, punching it out, and not thinking much about shaping our lives and being hungry and thirsty for what is enriching and deepening. May I encourage you to plunge in deeper, to be thirsty in your life?  How do you do that?

    

One way to be thirsty is to read.  Read widely and read deeply.  Author Steve Leveen writes that reading "is a way of living higher, with your eyes open to an astonishing world and your mind daily learning more---about the world, yourself, and your untapped capabilities."  You live your life differently because of what you read.  So read....ask questions and read to find answers.  Keep searching.  One of my favorite quotes is from Abraham Lincoln:  "I must read and study to prepare myself, for someday my chance will come."  Abraham Lincoln was thirsty as a young boy....he was largely self-taught through the books he read.

Deer in Yellowstone River, Wyoming

Another very important way to stay thirsty was encouraged centuries ago by King David by what he wrote in Psalm 42:

"As the deer longs for streams of water,

so I long for You, O God.

I thirst for God, the living God."

This is the thirst that underlies all other thirsts in life.  Jesus stated that He was the Living Water in John 4...claiming that "those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.  It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life."  The more you drink of Him, the more satisfying you find Him, and yet the more of Him you desire.  Keep thirsting and drinking deeply of Him.  You will experience life in more meaningful, adventurous, and astonishing ways through all the stuff of life.  Take time to regularly get away from all the distractions in your life and drink deeply from God's Word.  And read well and widely in all the great books.  You will be enriched and have much with which to nourish the lives of others!

Live bravely and beautifully!