Notes from a Sojourn
March 25, 2020
THIRST
Thirst is the physical sensation I experience when my body needs to replenish a depleted resource essential to living: water. My body needs water to regulate temperature, digest food, dissolve compounds, and generate energy. So, when I’m thirsty I go to the nearest tap, turn the faucet, fill my glass with water, and drink. I need it.
Knowing that we’re thirsty is a good thing. If we didn’t feel the sensation of thirst we would be in grave danger of dehydration. We would grow weary and faint, or worse. So knowing our thirst is the necessary first step toward nourishing our bodies with what we need to live.
Thirst is also a spiritual sensation. I experience it when my spirit – the Divine breath that animates my life – is depleted of the living water it needs for life: God.
Jesus says to any who would follow him, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matt 5.6). As it is with our physical thirst, knowing our thirst for right-relationship with God and our neighbours (that’s what righteousness is) is the necessary condition for ever satisfying it.
I want to be clear: going thirsty for want of water, physical or spiritual, is not a blessed experience. Just ask anyone who’s dehydrated. But knowing what we’re thirsty for is. It’s the first step and necessary condition for finding what we need.
The first words out of Jesus’ mouth in the Gospel of John are, “What are you looking for?” (Jn 1.38). He might as well have asked, “What are you thirsty for?”
Jesus pushes us to look deep within ourselves, to excavate the layers of our many appetites and find the thirst beneath them all. And, if we take Jesus at his word, when we discover what it is we’re thirsting for we’re blessed. Graced with this understanding of what our hearts are passionate for, our appetite for living water will always lead us to its Source in God. And we will be filled.
Colin+
