Being Water Wise

In the last few days there has been a lot of discussion in the media about the state of affairs concerning our ongoing water situation. The fact that water restrictions are likely to continue for at least another 10 years. The fact that the Murray will likely be dry within 12 months. The fact that there is no real rain in sight for the next 3 months or more...

I was just saying this morning that the water situation was being discussed at a Federal Parliamentary level back in the 1970's as a major issue for concern requiring some measures to be taken. Unfortunately, this warning was ignored and now look at the mess we're in.

Having said this, when I arrived at DHQ this morning and performed my usual routine (ie turn on the computer, get myself a cup of tea, read the Bible verse for the day and then my unread emails... one of which is almost always the Divisional Newsletter) I happened to notice something that I had been reading just yesterday when I was on my bus trip home from Uni.

Major Dennis Rowe had made comment about the very same issue. He first discusses our plight, which I have already mentioned above, and then goes on to say that David knew all too well the experience of drought. Psalm 63:1 clearly tells us of David's sorrow in the desert and his waiting on the Lord to renew his strength. "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water".

Major Rowe then continues with the very same passage I was reading about in detail just yesterday. He makes much the same point as the commentator I had been reading made but from a different perspective. The Scripture passage I'm referring to is John 4, where Jesus has an encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. From one perspective, it is used as a guide to develop a relationship with others and how to introduce them to the inner well-spring that is Jesus Christ. The other was simply a reminder to those of us already familiar with Christ that Jesus Christ is the "living water" that will quench all thirsts and that we need not look elsewhere to satisfy our hunger or thirst for something more, but that we simply need to look to Jesus and he will satisfy our souls, as David reminds us in the Psalm.

The concept of "living water" was so far beyond the Samaritan woman's understanding that she asked how Jesus intended to draw water from Jacob's Well, the deepest in the region at the time, without so much as a bucket. Jesus explained to her that drinking from that well would quench her thirst for a short time, but soon she would be thirsty again and again, but those who drink of the water that He provides will never thirst again. Ever.

Naturally this got the Samaritan woman's attention since it was a blazing hot afternoon, and she wanted to know more. She accepted Christ as her saviour and went on to share his message and the "living water" with her village, of which she was considered something of an outcast. She was a life-changing influence on that village because of her encounter with Christ and her passion to share the message with others. Those she did share the message with saw that she was changed and made new by the power and grace of God and they too wanted to experience that.

At the same time, it serves as a reminder that Jesus provides us with all that we need. We will n ever thirst or hunger so long as we wait upon the Lord. Isaiah tells us that those who wait upon the Lord, He will renew their strength. They will mount up on wings like Eagles.

We need to get passionate about helping others find the "living water" that is Jesus Christ, and use His example as a way to do just that. He wrote the book on delivering His message to others. It's time we took a leaf out of it.