Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink

That’s a quote from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Wikipedia entry has a summary, and is here. It’s a poem from back in the day when poems went beyond the short and pithy (Coleridge is actually one of those who took poetry from long stories into the modern 'short and pithy' format). In the poem, sailors are stuck in a calm and dying of thirst. To find out why, you’ll have to read the poem. What matters here is the irony of dying of thirst while being on an ocean full of water. “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”

Well, The River isn’t dying of thirst. But lots of others are. Spiritually, they are thirsty, and they can't find water. Jesus is the water they seek, as he described in John 4, and that's what we're trying to share. Living water, so that on one will be spiritually thirsty again. There were two specific things planned last week to share that living water, and both ended up getting undone by way too much actual water.

The first was a bottled water handout during football practice at Wills Park. It’s hot, and there are a whole lot of parents sitting in the sun baking while their kids practice. So both the football association and park gave their blessing, and I spent a lot of time getting the water, a table, and volunteer help. Then we showed up and found out there was a nice lady selling drinks at the request of the VP of the football association. It was her job, she was going to be there every night while it was hot, and she had a no-compete. No one else could sell or give out anything when she worked. So we left, and that effort went out the window. So we have all this bottled water, yet the folks we are trying to reach are still thirsty.

Sunday was the other thing- an ice cream fund raiser for The Drake House. And the bottom line there is that we were about 30 minutes into this two hour event when it got rained out. Actually, that’s an understatement. It was ‘monsoon-ed’ out. I haven’t been that wet in a long time. We managed to meet a few folks and give out of our spiffy new brochures, but we lost a whole lot more to the storm than we gave out. Once again, plenty of water, yet the folks we are trying to reach remained thirsty for living water.

The irony is obvious- actual water is getting in the way of sharing living water. Only I don't think it's the water doing it. I think something is at work trying to stop what we are doing, and in a cruel twist they chose actual water to do it. There are forces at work in this world that are not from God. I can't explain them, I don't know what they are, but I know they are out there. They are real, and I think they are working to oppose us. And just to be cute, they chose actual water to oppose our attempts to share living water.

Maybe you don't believe in stuff like that whole 'spiritual forces' bit. Maybe you think I'm nuts, that it just rained and that we just got unlucky. Maybe, but enough other stuff happened last week to make me think it's too much for a coincidence. I think something is going on, and I think they got too cute for their own good. Now I know. Now you know. The word is out. We know they're there, and what they are doing. I ask you to join me in praying that God will dropkick them out of the way so the floodgates of living water can open, and the Holy Spirit can pour out on those who need it, so that all may drink of living water and never be thirsty again.