Food for Thought

I once read that by the time we feel thirsty, we are actually too thirsty.

According to experts, it is advisable that we drink water long before we experience the symptoms of thirst. Those symptoms are nature’s way of telling us that we are on our way to dehydration, and that we have left it too long since we last filled up.

It’s much the same with a car, for example, or with the prize vegetables we are trying to grow down on the allotment. If we leave either without water for longer than is advisable, the car’s engine will begin to malfunction, and the vegetables will struggle and maybe even die.

I dehydrated once, when I caught a virus as a boy. The effects were dramatic. I would hallucinate as my body became unable to process the correct amount of fluid to my brain. All things considered, then, we can safely conclude that being deprived of water is not a good idea. Such deprivation weakens us, physically and mentally. Conservative Party leader David Cameron always drinks a mug of hot, sweet tea before Prime Minister’s Questions, working on the theory that hydrated brains function better.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus had a conversation with a woman who had come to draw water at a well. Jesus used the conversation to highlight our need of spiritual refreshment and sustenance. He said, “All those who drink this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring which will provide him with life-giving water and give him eternal life” (4:13, 14 Good News Bible).
For each of us, balance is important. We need to look after ourselves in order to maintain physical and mental wellbeing.

Our spiritual life, though, is also important. If we fail to nurture the spiritual dimension to our lives, there is a vital part of us, within, that suffers. Jesus alone can quench such a spiritual thirst. He wants us to take him up on his offer of life-giving water.

How about it? There is plenty for everyone. A chat with Jesus over a cuppa will do the trick, and will refresh those parts of us other philosophies and theories simply cannot reach. Consider yourself invited!

Major Stephen Poxon