Living Water
By Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery ministry TEAM Training Coach, 3/10/2021
After my shower I sat down for dinner with my wife, and I noticed that my heartrate was still way up, like I was still running. I checked my pulse, and something was clearly wrong. I went to the living room and noticed that I was still lightheaded and almost blacked-out. Finally, after 30 minutes or so things got back to normal, but I was a little worried about what was happening to me. Why was I struggling? What did these symptoms mean?
The next day I started reading about my symptoms, and one of the causes listed was dehydration. I wondered if I was drinking enough water, so I looked up how much water I should be consuming in a day. I was surprised to discover that I should be drinking half my body weight in ounces. For instance, if I weigh 180 lbs., then I need 90 ounces a day in water to be properly hydrated. Wow! I normally consume about 16-20 ounces a day in pure water. I drink coffee in the morning, but I’ve come to learn that coffee can actually dehydrate me. Holy Cow! I had been living in dehydration for a long time, and my body finally let me hear about it! I increased my water intake by more than double, and guess what happened on my next run? I had more energy, ran a faster time than normal, and I didn’t feel fatigued after my run. That was a direct result of hydrating properly.
This experience got me thinking about how that relates to my recovery and spiritual walk. Is there such a thing as spiritual hydration? Absolutely! Psalms 143:6 says, “I lift my hands to you in prayer. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain.” Have you ever seen land that is parched? It is dry, cracked, and hard. That sounds a lot like my spiritual life before coming to Celebrate Recovery. I have been a Christian for most of my life but to be honest, I didn’t hydrate spiritually very much. Sure, I went to church every Sunday and got watered by the pastor, but I didn’t do much daily hydrating spiritually. When difficult times came, it was like I was in a desert with not a drop of water. I was parched. I was cracked and my heart became hard. Then, I came to this oasis called Celebrate Recovery. I learned about Principle 7 which says, “Reserve a daily time with God, for self-examination, Bible reading and prayer, in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.” I learned how to hydrate spiritually every day. And guess what? I became stronger spiritually than I had ever been in my life. I soon gained the ability to resist temptation. I had a peace that transcended all understanding, and my parched soul became soft. The soil of my life became fertile ground, and the seeds of recovery sprouted forth joy, sobriety, and serenity.
It’s interesting to
compare physical dehydration to spiritual dehydration. Studies
show that the human body can go a relatively long period of time without
food. But it can’t go very long without water. My spiritual life
doesn’t thrive well without living water, who is Jesus Christ.
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