My Canteen
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and it’s a crystal clear memory.
A long time ago when I was on my feet I once went on a backpacking trip through the Rawah wilderness in northern Colorado; even though it was back when I was a teenager, I recall that trip as though it were yesterday. Um, that burning, aching feeling in your muscles as you hike up steep mountains, the feel of the hot, high mountain sun on my face, and I will never forget dipping my canteen into the (as the cowboys called it) the Cache de Poudre River (I don’t know how you say that in French but that’s how I learned it) after that long, tiring morning on the trail, boy did that water in that river feel good.
Now it’s not that I needed to fill my canteen – it was, in fact, already filled. But after hours in the hot sun, the water was warm in the canteen, it was a little stale, and frankly, it tasted like metal. Why drink that when there was this beautiful fresh, clear, rushing mountain river of crystal ice-cold water? No way was I going to drink from the old stuff in my canteen. I mean when you’ve got the real thing, why waste your thirst on something second (or even third-best) that tastes bad?
I thought of that morning by the Cache de Poudre River when I recently read a special verse in the book of Jeremiah. God says in Jeremiah Chapter 2, verse 13, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Well, my little canteen, metallic and warm as it was, you could definitely say it would hold water, but you get the point. So many of us settle for second-best, third-best things in this world; things that really cannot and do not satisfy. And here’s the jarring thing: God says it’s a sin. It’s an offense to Him when we Christians know full well that Jesus is the clear, fresh, satisfying Living Water, and yet, even knowing that, we still turn to the things of this world believing that earthly pleasures can and do refresh and satisfy. Oh my goodness, where are our heads? Because when we choose earthly things over godly things, it’s like, well… it’s like licking the inside of a hot, empty canteen that leaks and saying, “Oh, yes, oh, this tastes so good, more, more, this is great, this is so refreshing!” Like, hello!
But you gotta admit we do it all the time, right? Jesus really is the Spring of Living Water and when we drink of Him, out of us flow rivers of living water. And the offense against God comes when we know that – when we really know that Jesus satisfies – and yet we still dig in the sand and grope around for cisterns—cisterns that are broken., cisterns that at best hold stagnant, stale, brackish water. That is where the offense against God comes in. Because basically, we’re telling Him that He doesn’t satisfy. He’s not enough. He doesn’t refresh, so, so I’m going lick the inside of the stale canteen. Oh my goodness.
Augustine once said, “It is easy to want things from the Lord and yet not want the Lord Himself, as though the gift could ever be preferable to the Giver.” So, look friend why waste your time on the pleasures and the offerings of this broken world when you’ve got the real thing, the real person, the One and only One who can satisfy you. Let’s not settle for pleasures in this world that, that only half do it. Let’s not turn our backs on the only One who can fulfill our deepest longings. It’s time to trash the canteen and dive into the rivers of living water. It’s time to drink long and cool of the refreshing grace of the Lord Jesus. Do that today and be satisfied. Thanks for listening today on Joni and Friends.
© Joni and Friends
31 Days Toward Passionate Faith
You have been called from death to life, from doubt to faith, from apathy to passion! Joni shares daily inspiration to guide you on your own life’s journey.
