“If you are ever stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean, don’t drink the water Uncle Mikey. It will only make you more thirsty.”
This was something my niece told me over the Thanksgiving holidays. She was teaching me something about the illusion of saltwater. When you’re thirsty you might be tempted to quench your thirst anyway you can, even with saltwater. However most of us know that while it might be momentarily satisfying, it actually leaves us worse off than we were before. It leaves us more thirsty.
Sometimes I drink the saltwater in our quaint, little town of Franklin, TN. There is saltwater all around this place. Not in a literal sense but figuratively. Now, let me be clear. I love it here. It’s a beautiful, old historic town with lots of charm. However it seems people in this town (including me) chase the grand illusion of ‘more’. More square footage in our houses. More bells and whistles on our cars. More clothes to wear.
More. More. More.
It’s a way of life here. There is an entire industry built around having more. However I’m learning that like saltwater, having ‘more stuff’ never really satisfies us. It only makes us want, well, more.
Don’t hear me say that having new things is bad or wrong. I certainly don’t believe that. I am just stating that believing (consciously or unconsciously) more stuff will make us happy, is a lie. A trick. A hoax. It only leaves us more thirsty for real happiness. Some of us spend our entire life this way. We try to quench our thirst with things that simply do not possess the ability to do so.
I believe the old adage is true.
“The things that we treasure most in this life can’t be bought.”
So, here’s my challenge to myself. Over the holidays, I want to drink in my family. Drink in my friends. Drink in the memories I’ve made and am making. Drink in the fullness of Jesus and the life He brings to my little desert island.
If there’s anything I need more of, it’s Him. Join me and drink up.
John 7:37 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”
WWJU for Somebody Like Me? – Thank You
Two years ago, after taking fall colors trip through the New England states and swinging by Word of Life Bible Camp for a couple of nights, I moved out to California with only the stuff that fit in (or on) my ’01 Saturn Sedan. I had grown a deep appreciation for the people of a church out here.
After confessing a sin of my heart in the church, I was turned over to the police, charged as a felon, jailed, and later kicked out of the church. After bailing out of jail and for the last two years, I have been living in a tent at an RV park. Though my life has been stripped of so many earthly things and is still stripped of many friendships, I can still see that I am blessed with way too much.
I have found a church and a people that are helping with addiction recovery, I have a tent, nice weather, a car, and place to store my stuff. I am also blessed with a pizza delivery job, amazing!! With so much stripped away, I still see people that are in more pain; deeper in their addictions, no car, no job, sleeping on the Safeway sidewalks blocked in by carts. I want to help, but long-term help is what they need, and I can’t provide right now. …While I am delivering pizzas to mansions that could fit my tent in them more than 1000 times over; homes so big it is hard for me to find the 2 foot plaque with there address or difficult for me to figure out which door is their “front” door.
God’s Irony…He is teaching me so much.
What a story! Thank you for sharing!!!