How thirsty are you?
Years ago in a book Saha ra Unveiled, by William Langewiesche, he told the story of an Algerian named Lag Lag and a companion whose truck broke down while crossing the desert. They nearly died of thirst as they waited many days to be rescued. As they became more dehydrated, they became willing to drink anything in hopes of quenching their terrible thirst. The sun forced them into the shade under the truck, where they dug a shallow trench. They had food but did not eat believing it would magnify their thirst. When they ran out of drinking water, they began to drink rusty radiator water to survive. Dehydration, not star-vation, kills wanderers in the desert, and thirst is one of the worst ways to suffer.
Physiologists use Greek-based words to describe the various stages of human thirst. For example, the Sahara Desert is dipsogenic-that is “thirst provoking.” In Lag Lag’s case, they would say he progressed from eudipsia “ordinary thirst” to hyperdipsia or “temporary intense thirst.” Then he reached the final stage of polydipsia, a sustained excessive thirst that drives people to drink anything, including radiator fluid or sea water.
We have a spiritual thirst that can only be properly satisfied by God. The Psalmist said, “My soul thirsts for you in a parched land.” Another Psalm proclaims, “As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God!” Jesus told the Samaritan woman He could give her living water so she would never thirst again. The Book of Revelation ends with a wonderful invitation, “Let him who is thirsty come!” When we thirst physically we find something to quench our thirst. It may or may not sat-isfy depending on our choice of drink. The same is true in life. We thirst, but we try to quench it with things that don’t satisfy completely. For the Samaritan woman, it was to be loved, going from one husband to the next. For some it may be material things, or acceptance socially, and the list goes on and on. However, our Lord said He gives us something called living water that keeps us from ever being thirsty again. In the Old and New Testament, there are mentions of a river coming from the presence of God, providing living water for those who drink from it in the future. Are you thirsty? Take a drink freely offered from the Lord. It will quench your thirst.
