Thirsty?

Wannabe biker, Dudley Frank, played by William H. Macy, trudged through the desert pushing his Harley Davidson with his riding pals, the Wild Hogs. One of his friends acted irrationally toward Dudley and then quickly apologized. Dudley forgave him and blamed it on the effects of the dehydration they were all experiencing. He explained, “Your blood’s thickening, so your heart’s working harder to pump it through your arteries. Less gets to your head. Our bodies are literally trying to drink themselves.” Naturally, proving his point, his friends wanted to rip his head off. This scene out of the comedy, “Wild Hogs”, underscores what happens when we suffer from a lack of water; thirst.

There is a thirst more essential than the physical. Every person thirsts or longs for something that is missing or was lost. In spite of personal successes and social recognition there is a thirst that remains unquenched.

To be thirsty is to be desperate to get something or be something. It affirms the truth that people crave more than H2O. Deep in the heart there is an unquenchable thirst expressed in a tenacious desire to be noticed; to be known. We want to know we matter to someone and belong somewhere.

Ancient Jewish prophet Jeremiah quoted God when he wrote, “My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Cisterns are man-made receptacles for retaining drinking water. People in Jeremiah’s day kept digging shoddy reservoirs rather than drink from the spring of life-giving water.

Literal water wasn’t the real issue even then. God was identifying the fact that people have thirsts that they are trying to satisfy with poorly designed schemes. Their strategies for life are missing the mark of discharging true thirst. Deeper longings, which are the thirst of the soul, are still unattended.

Addressing earthly longings with mortal strategies will not satisfy the deepest desire of the soul. That thirst can only be sated in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. No religious or spiritual activity replaces an honest confession of a need that exceeds the tangible.

Our need to know that we matter to someone and belong somewhere is met in knowing God created us with purpose and that we are loved with an indescribable affection. So rich is His love for us that He gave His Son to save all who believe. Jesus showed God’s love in the strongest possible terms. His death on the cross for all sinners was the greatest demonstration of unconditional love. When Jesus cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink… living water will flow up from the depths of your heart”, he was offering to satisfy our innermost thirst.

Are you thirsty? It’s okay to tell God about it. Does this thirst quenching offer from Jesus sound appealing? Confess your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and call on Him. He will forgive your sins and quench your thirst. He turns no thirsty soul away.