home in America. You wake up, stumble to the bathroom, do your business, and
press a lever to send it all to the happy hunting grounds. You turn a tap and
water streams out, so you can wash your hands. If you are lucky, it will even be
hot. Then you splash some on your face, pull out your toothbrush, and run it
under the tap before, during and after your brushing. You might even leave it
on during the whole 30-120 seconds it takes you to brush your teeth.
hen you might climbinto the shower, where hot water would most likely stream out, ideally with
excellent pressure. You let the water run as you shampoo, rinse, repeat, scrub
up, shave, rinse, etc. If you are conservative with water, you probably still
take 8-10 minutes. If you had a rough
night, it might run closer to 20-30.
Then if you are a
guy, you might shave, rinsing your razor as you go. If you are a girl, you might
put on your make-up, washing your hands and brushes after each step.
Then it would be
breakfast time. Say you wanted to make oatmeal…you would dump some water and
some oats into a bowl, put it into the microwave, wait a few minutes, stir, and
eat. Then you would wash the bowl, maybe toss it into the dishwasher for later,
and head on your way.
In what took less
than an hour, you used water eight times-and only once was to actually make
food. If you follow “healthy guidelines,” you would then fill up your Nalgene
with water from your Brita, and head to school or work.
in a village in Africa. You stumble out in the morning to the pit latrine,
where thoughts of “bombs away” fly into your head unbidden as you do your
morning business. Then if you’re an American, you race back to your room before
anyone wants to shake your hand, to put on some Purell. If you brush your
teeth, it’s with bottled water, and you use as little as possible so you have
more to drink. To shower, someone first builds a fire, then heats water from
the bore hole, then mixes the boiling water with cold water from the well, and
then you dump it from a bowl over your head and body. It probably takes 15
minutes, but you use less water than to flush a toilet in America. Washing your
face outside of the “bath” is done with a baby wipe, if you even bother.
All this to realize,
water really is a vital part of everyday living. Whether you are blessed in
America and have it easily accessible and clean, or if you are the other more
than half of the world that water does not come easily to, it is essential.
the idea of God supplying water, of Jesus giving living water so you would
never thirst again, was so popular back in the day. In countries where water
does not merely flow from turning a knob, this idea is still popular. To thirst
for the Lord and His living water–to rely on God to provide. In the west, it is
easy to meet all of our own needs. We can forget how deeply we need the Lord
and His living water, His bread of life. In poor countries, God is really all a
lot of people have, and they realize that he is all they really need.
‘Jesusanswered,
“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.”‘
