August 20

Day 159: Dehydration

Having recently been in a dry and hot place, I am 1) aware of how much water we have around us here, and 2) how most of us live in a continual state of dehydration.

An app on my watch tells me to get at least 60 oz. of water a day. The same app also tells me I likely need more than that. My observation: that (with the possible exception of endurance athletes) we have become content, even satisfied to live dehydrated.

Forgive me, now, the obvious analogy. The parallel to spiritual hydration is not lost on me. Akin to how we require water every day, and throughout every day, we also need "spiritual hydration."

It would be strange if not nonsensical for any of us to hold out for one drink of water a week. We wouldn't make it. Human bodies can go without food for weeks. But that same human body will begin to self-destruct without water in just three days.

Also, coffee, liquor and other beverage choices do not serve us well as substitutes. Attempting to hydrate by draining a full pot of coffee is not the hydration our bodies need and crave. Instead of hydration, we just get the jitters.

It strikes me that so many churched people are content to drink once a week. In the summer even less so. We treat our church experience like going to the gas station once a week. We allow the tank to drain to empty the other six days.

We content ourselves with being in a constant state of thirst. Or, we content ourselves with false hydration sources as substitutes.

We occasionally ask for the "power of God" to help us in a crisis moment. We hope the next week's sermon will be a compelling, adequate supply. And we wonder why our own spiritual lives seem so empty during the week.

It's like we expect the drinking fountain to come to us, instead of us to the fountain. We want "living water," but we refuse to drink.

In his version of the gospel, Mark said something interesting when describing the inner life of Jesus. At His baptism, Mark records that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus. But the word Mark actually wrote implies more. The Spirit didn't just land on Him (Mark 1:10) but that the Spirit came "into Him."

Not mere external enablement, but internal intimacy.

Jesus was not given the Holy Spirit for certain, temporary acts that defied the natural world. He drank freely and continually of the Spirit.

But how did Jesus actually drink from the Spirit's presence within Him?

Jesus knew His Bible. He had studied and learned, like anyone else, but (of course) with a better memory. Second, He regularly reserved time to slip away and pray to His Father.

At the end of Jesus's earthly ministry, His earthly ministry did not end. He passed the tangible aspects of His ministry to His followers.

And He "breathed on them the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22.) Not a part time, occasional show up, but the constant presence and power of God.

The Spirit who raised Jesus from the grave is the very same Spirit that we received upon our new birth in Christ.

The Spirit is our hydration, to be ingested daily. The Bible is the result of God breathing His Word, giving us the content that the Holy Spirit makes believable and powerful in us.

If only we would drink it up.

And cease to be satisfied with constant dehydration.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau