Water.

Water is an intriguing thing. It is probably the most basic necessity of life. And in America, we take it for granted far too often. I think of last summer when most of the southeast was in a severe drought and big cities had stringent restrictions on water usage...people thought that the world was coming to an end if they couldn't turn on the sprinklers to water their pristine yards that they spend buckets of time and money on. (Which is another thing...who ever said that our yards have to be the perfect shade of green, free from all weeds, and just the right consistency? I think that we have much bigger and more important things to do than worry about something so trivial.)

You don't realize how much you use water until you don't have access to it. Several times in the past few weeks, we have had to shut our water off for hours or days at a time because of issues with the well and the water heater. It's been inconvenient to have to go elsewhere to take a shower and to have to use bottled water for cooking and brushing your teeth...inconvenient, but eye-opening. How many people in the world don't even know what a shower looks like? How many people would pay a month's wages just to have one of those water bottles that we have lying around? How many people have never had running water in their houses? How many people have to choose to drink contaminated water because that is all they have access to? How many parents send their children with jugs of water to fill up with the water that they know is making them sick, but they can't do anything about it?

So how can I have the audacity to say that it is a hassle for me to have to go to my neighbor's house to take a shower when all these people are dying every day from having to live off of water that causes the most terrible of diseases. Did you know that water is the #1 killer in the world? Above cancer, car accidents, murders, AIDS, everything.

Praise God that He has given us Living Water. Just as water is essential to life, Living Water is crucial to our existence. So just as people die every day because they do not have access to clean water, people are being condemned to Hell because they do not have Living Water. Let us not take for granted this treasure of Living Water any more than we do regular water.

"Living Water will not quench us if it's watered down."