Water from the Rock

"...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 4.14























If my spirit is like a ship, sometimes all it takes is the smallest of winds to send a few waves crashing on deck to capsize me.

This weekend, it was the weather. Things had been starting to cool down… the air conditioner was being given a rest. I pulled out my bag of ‘winter’ clothes and began to thank God for getting me through another summer. But then temperatures soared back above 100 and I was suddenly in a tizzy, suppressing a sense of outrage for what in Arizona can sometimes feel like one endless summer…

All our efforts to push over and through our torpor failed … We got up early and sat outside with our iced coffees. Too hot. We decided to visit our favorite Canyon – where there is shade and sometimes water at this time of year. But by 9:30, after walking ten minutes, we were already thirsty, sweating profusely and regretful that we hadn’t brought water bottles.

Inside, the Canyon was dry and the only water we found was stagnant… One look at poor Audrey and I thought she was going to faint...






















Haven’t we had enough of this, Lord? I found myself thinking. Isn’t it about time you sent us some relief from the heat? … Why have you banished us to a place as desolate as this while everywhere else (note the two-year-old hyperbole) is busy making mulled cider and visiting pumpkin patches?



















My grumblings reverberated through the Canyon with a familiar echo… that of the Israelites when they wandered in the desert after God had freed them from slavery in Egypt.

"Why did you bring us up out of Egypt?” they asked, “to make us and our children…die of thirst?" (Exodus 17.3).

In Deuteronomy Moses puts this rumor to rest, saying, “He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. …to humble you and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” (Deut 8.14-15).

Sad as it is to admit, I realized as I walked glumly out of the Canyon that even after all the wonders God has wrought in my life, I really am no different from the Israelites... swift to lose heart… and slow to trust.

It is so easy to accept God’s sovereign purposes for my life in the abstract – but when it comes to particulars, I am quick to call His goodness into question…

That afternoon, after listening to an exceptional sermon by my brother Shad, I considered that while there are many purposes to testing, one of them is to reveal our spiritual need... to show us that the real wilderness, the real barren, desolate place is our soul… and that without spiritual nourishment we will die.

In the desert, the Israelites thirsted and God satisfied them with water from the rock.

In the same way, God has brought forth water from the Rock that is Christ in order to satisfy me...

And yet I continue - sometimes without even realizing it - to run to other wells to try to quench my thirst… I want life to be pleasant, want to sit sipping my coffee in the shade, want to blunt my thirst with beauty… to take a walk in the Canyon and dip my feet into the cool mountain waters… and then I complain and whine when God says, NO! You may not satisfy yourself this way...


Instead I should be falling on my face in worship that He loves me enough to even show me that I am thirsty… For the worst fate that could befall me – worse than desert-living, worse than death – would be to live my whole life without ever recognizing my spiritual need.

And so today, though the sun is shining, and the desert winds are kicking up all kinds of dust, I will lift up my weary soul in praise...



"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." ~John 7.38