Soul Thirsty: When All is Vanity
Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. –Jesus
It begins first thing each morning: empty the dishwasher, begin to reload, pack three lunchboxes, recite the breakfast offerings to three unenthusiastic kids, the shrill countdown to oh-my-gosh-we’re-gonna-be-late. There’s also the laundry baskets, the bills, unopened mail, supper plans, and a phone blinking and beeping a night’s worth of notifications and a day’s worth of plans. All before 7:30 AM, the day still young, the To Do list already long.
What advantage does man have in all his work
Which he does under the sun?
…the sun rises and the sun sets;
And hastening to its place it rises there again.
…All things are wearisome;
Man is not able to tell it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor is the ear filled with hearing;
…I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun,
and behold, all is vanity and striving after the wind.
~Ecclesiastes 1:3, 5, 8, and 14
Somewhere in the midst of the busyness, I search for the compass of meaning and hope, but find
“Empty”
“Spent”
“Used up”
on the dial that used to show True North.
What was it God said to me just this morning? It feels like so long ago, I can’t remember. It’s hidden in the fog.
The Hebrew word for vanity is habel. It means unsubstantial, fleeting, like a breath or a vapor.
With my tasks and obligations ever before me, my daily dependence on God is what becomes a vapor; it escapes me with each breath exhaled.
Meaning seeps out of the cracks of the earthen vessel that we are. We leak living water when we live in the flesh.
We thirst, because the flesh, the dust of the earth, does not hold spirit but Spirit holds together the flesh.
We pant like a deer for the wrong water. It is vanity, a fleeting vapor. Fog.
Are you soul-thirsty? Striving after the wind?
There is another well.
But I offer water that will become a wellspring within you
that gives life throughout eternity.
You will never thirst again. –Jesus
The only place to find the comfort and peace we so desperately seek. Living water, life giving hope. As we mourn Elijah’s death and await treatment options for Gary’s cancer. . .there is no other place to seek what is needed. . .Thank you for the reminder and assurance.
Thank you for reminding me of The Living Water, that gives us never ending life water so that no matter what challenges our day we are never along when Jesus is our Living Water, Blessings Gloria
So true; we seem to chase our on back and we become exhausted. Sometimes we just need to slow down and drink from His living water.
Thank you Dawn for the timely reminder.