The day you take your kindergartner to school for the first time.
The day you find out the dishwasher isn't cleaning dishes, the car isn't running, and the shampoo isn't leaving your hair bouncy and full.
The day you stand by your mother's hospital bed and assure your dad she's going to be okay.
The day your teenager comes home with a broken heart.
The day your teenager breaks your heart.
The day your best friend has a mild heart attack and you want to be by her side but you need to feed and bathe her children instead.
The day your child is diagnosed with a learning disability.
The day your husband tells you he got a transfer... to another state.
Need I go on? No, you probably had one such day in the recent weeks. You know what I'm talking about. Sometimes we just have to struggle to stay on our feet, push hard to make any progress, watch our backs a little more carefully, and defend our team mates with a little more vigilance.
If we are operating on empty on those days...we'd better watch out.
We'll say things we later regret, fall on our face, tackle the wrong guy, head the wrong direction with the ball, end up with mud on our face or just wimp out. We'll look like Betty White on the field alright. And that's putting it nicely. After all, Betty's doing pretty well lately.
It's times like these that we really need to make sure we're operating with full souls.
But how can we do that when we're having to pour out so much?
Isaiah 58:10-11 says:
and if you offer yourself to the hungry,
and satisfy the afflicted one,
then your light will shine in the darkness,
and your night will be like noonday.
The LORD will always lead you,
satisfy you in a parched land,
and strengthen your bones.
You will be like a watered garden
and like a spring whose waters never run dry.
Did you catch that? If we're drinking from the living water, we'll never run dry, even in the times when we are pouring out the most. In fact, we'll continue to function like a well watered garden.
That's good news for a lot of us today. We don't have to look like Betty White on the playing field and we don't have to look like dried up tumbleweeds in the desert. And while I'm all for having a Snickers bar every now and again, they can just make you all the thirstier. Let's stick with the fountain of living water today.
