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The river moves with a slow crawl. The full-throated roar that normally echoes through the valley is now choked by arid conditions. The gurgles and gasps coming from the remaining rapids at the bend sound their appeal for showers. I’m silently lifting the same as I view the depletion that high temps and drought have brought.
Along the bank, the normally sparkling water is stilled and dull, thick with sludge as algae collects and strangles the flow of oxygen. Death seems to be shrouding the valley. The river is stripped of its glory. The mortific bed gapes at me as a dying loved one seeking help.
Where clean and clear water should be flowing, now lies a bare bed clothed in green algae. The green that normally adorns the trees on the hillsides has turned tawny and dry. And what green lies on the river bed is algae from lack of flowing water. The crusty white and gray blanket spreading over the rocks have the pallor of death.
The river’s shallow conditions are confirmed by the long interval with no signs of canoes or kayaks. This is not the time for floating the river. In fact, the algae bloom could be dangerous or carry toxins. All of creation, in this area, is longing for rain; languishing in the heat and arid days of this living death.
The leaves are brown and trees along the mountain ridge have lost their vibrant green glow far too early. “I’m hurting for the trees” I tell LeRoy and he joins me in scanning the dry terrain.
He assures me that the trees aren’t dying, but without rain they’re already going dormant before Autumn. The trees won’t be adorned with color this year. He tells me some have turned brown because of a shallow root system, but “They’re not dead, they’ll be okay” he assures me, “they just need a good shower. They need water.”
There’s a beautiful promise in Deuteronomy 33:28, where Moses describes God’s blessings:
“. . . His heavens drop down dew.”
Pastor Spurgeon gives this sweet comment about that verse:
“I shall not be left to my natural drought or to the world’s burning heat or to the sirocco of Satanic temptation. Oh, that I may at this very hour feel the gentle, silent, saturating dew of the Lord!”
It’s been quite a while since I’ve walked in morning dew. Extreme heat alerts on our phones and posted burn bans notify us of the danger this drought brings. I noticed these warning signs being ignored as I drove past a brush fire in a nearby yard. Is it a foolish sense of invincibility that causes humanity to ignore published warnings?
How many live in a state of denial as drought and heat bring death?
In the book of Job, one of his comforters, Elihu, rebukes and challenges him on his perspective of life and death, of suffering, loss, and his notions of justice. He presents Job with a wider perspective of God. Elihu reminds Job of God’s mercy and protection to keep humanity from crossing the “river of death.”
This is a difficult phrase to translate and most often you’ll find the word “sword” instead of “river.” But the phrase is graphic as it describes God’s mercy to some but also His just punishment to others. A few chapters later, Elihu tells Job that all who do not listen to God’s merciful warnings are quickly rushing toward a river of death. (Job 33:18; 36:12 NLT).
The story of the river of death is the gracious warning our loved ones need to hear if they refuse the living water offered to them; if they try to satiate their thirst through emptiness and refuse to drink from the river of life. I hope you’ll consider and ask the Lord how to graciously share this warning with those you love.
I’m witnessing a literal “river of death” as the fish need more oxygen and the rocks are covered with blankets of graying algae rather than fresh water. All of life depends on water. Life dies without it. Death happens without it. Our deep thirst drives us to seek out a deep drink.
In my spiritual life, I’ve found that if I’m no longer thirsty, there’s a problem.
If I’m not thirsting after God, I won’t drink deeply. And when I stop drinking deeply, that puts me in vulnerable, even dangerous, territory. Without drinking deeply, I can quickly go spiritually dormant.
Thankfully, because of the river of grace, even when I’m dormant, I’m not in the throng of the “living dead” but I’m fully alive “in Christ.” The river of life flows within me. But that’s only because of the living water that Jesus offered me as a child. If I had rejected his offer and continued to seek my soul-thirst in empty places, I would still belong to the “living dead.”
Jesus alone satiates soul-thirst and brings life through His living water.
Don’t you love that Jesus offered water to a woman who needed a drink so badly that He was willing to do the unthinkable, to hold an intimate conversation with her? When she carried her jug to draw water from the well in Samaria, she was unaware that an appointment with a man she’d never met was waiting there for her. Jesus was there to tell her that He knew all she’d ever done.
Knowing her shame and guilt, Jesus offered the one thing she needed: living water.
The Life-Giver came to meet this broken woman as she walked alone in a despised place. He didn’t shun her. He didn’t add to her shame.
Instead, in John chapter 4, Jesus revealed His true identity to her, giving her the opportunity to turn from all she’d tasted before. Turning from all that only left her empty and dry. Jesus offered to satisfy her soul-thirst by drinking deeply of the living water that He held out to her.
Years ago, one of my students, a dear and beautiful young woman in her twenties, lived enslaved by a lethal addiction. She was one of my “broken girls.” Thankfully she woke up to the death she was heading toward. She determined to go to battle against her killer, and I gladly joined her in that. One evening, as she was confessing to me another failure, after being clean for so long, she asked me why she kept returning to what could be certain death for her.
My short answer that night was followed later with much more, but it’s the same answer for all of us. When we keep turning back to drink from a muddy well or choose a death-giving addiction, the short answer is:
“We turn to other things when we’re not drinking deeply of Jesus.”
Today seeing our thirsty surroundings, I feel the cry rising, “All of creation is groaning.” And these conditions are echoed by my morning prayer. Each morning when I wake, I wake thirsty for my drink from the River of Life. I’m ready to drink deeply, and before my eyes open in the earliest waking moments, I whisper to Him:
“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.”
(Psalm 63:1)
While pouring out prayers shaped by Scripture, I approach my Lord, ready to receive food from His Word and to drink deeply of Him. He is our Living Water. He is my source of life.
Is He yours?
Dear reader, if you’ve reached a dormant state, or if you’ve never tasted the living water, I hope you’ll lift this prayer from Psalm 63 in sincerity. I encourage you to check out Jeremiah chapter 2 where God asks His people why they’ve chosen to drink from broken and empty cisterns and have forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters. Read the portion of John 7 where Jesus invites anyone who is thirsty to come and drink of Him. He follows that with the beautiful promise of the Holy Spirit who is the “living water” within believers.
Are you drinking deeply?
And if you are, do you offer His living water to others?
Oh, and my young student who was heading toward literal death with her addiction? She’s stayed clean for several years now. Thankfully she drank deeply of the life-giving water of Jesus. Today she is a wonderful wife and mom, living for Jesus with an incredible testimony of His power to deliver. And, because of that, she is raising her children to love and live for Him.
She’s no longer one of the living dead, but is drinking deeply of the river of life!
Grateful for you dear friends, all for His glory!
A great read and reminder only Jesus can satisfy. I appreciate you sharing this.
So good!! Thank you!!