spiritual hydration

I am a notoriously poor hydrator.  What I mean is, I rarely drink enough water to keep myself hydrated.  That particularly was an issue on the mission trips this summer.  The first day in Mississippi and in Mexico were much harder on me than they should have been due to the fact that I hadn't been drinking enough water and didn't drink enough while working.  Being dehydrated just simply isn't any fun.  That's the obvious part.  What isn't so obvious is how important hydration is to day-to-day living.

We rarely realize how beneficial remaining hydrated is to our regular activities and life.  We know we need to drink water when exercising or working outdoors, but there's a reason why we need to keep ourselves hydrated - 64 oz daily is what "they" say we need.  What with our bodies being 75% water, staying hydrated keeps us functioning at our best.  It's a subtle thing, though.  It isn't like a shot of Gatorade, caffeine or sugar - or something else - that gives you a relatively instant shot of energy.  It's just a simple truth that you aren't as good dehydrated as you are hydrated.  It may not be a difference you notice immediately, if at all, but it is still a difference.  When we are dehydrated, not only does our physical body suffer, but so does our mental and emotional capacities.

Remember:  If you're feeling thirsty, you're already dehydrated.

What struck me a few weeks ago, though, was that the same thing is true spiritually.  If you've grown up in the church - attending worship, sunday school, youth groups, etc. - then surely at some point in time you've been encouraged or even admonished to practice spiritual disciplines such as spending regular time in prayer and reading the Bible.  It's probably been stated to you in some form of "there is nothing more important to your day and your life than taking the time to do these."  And, you've probably put forward a good effort every now and then to do so - only to find time for prayer and reading the Bible to be the first thing that goes when the schedule gets full.  And, frankly, who notices?  Everything seems just as good when you do take the time for these spiritual disciplines as when you don't.

But they aren't.  And as important to our physical well being as it is to stay hydrated, it is even more important to our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being to stay spiritually hydrated.  Being intentional will impact all areas of our being, not just our spirit.

As much as I struggle with staying hydrated, it is also hard to stay spiritually hydrated.  I think it's harder for pastors.  We spend our time every day in the Word, praying with people, delving into spiritual matters.  It's easy to rationalize the importance of this away.  Over the past year or so, I have been making a concerted effort to improve this area.

Eugene Peterson refers to this as working the angles in a book of the same name.  If the angles in a triangle aren't right, it doesn't matter how long or true the lines are - they'll never connect.  The three angles Peterson refers to are prayer, scripture and spiritual direction.  If we don't take care of the angles, every thing else falls apart.

The thing is, by the time we think we need to pray we're already spiritually dehydrated.  

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"  (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)  The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)  Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?  Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 

- John 4:7-14

Hydrate or die.