Thursday, March 16, 2006
Refreshing
I love refreshing experiences. One of the things that have always gotten me through the times when I’ve exerted myself (cutting and weed-whacking my ½ acre, helping out hurricane victims in Miami, running) is the thought that my “pain” will end with a cool drink of water. There are days the water coming out of a fountain or bottle tastes like the finest champagne not that I know what that tastes like, lately.
There was the interview with Tony Battie, a player for the Orlando Magic, who was instrumental in their overtime win against the Utah Jazz. He was asked what he thought of their 4 or 5 game home winning streak. In essence he said, “We’re professionals so we need to be playing hard every night. We owe that to the organization and the fans. So we work hard and play hard. Sometimes we’ll come out on top and sometimes it won’t be enough but the bottom line is we give it our all each night.”
Wow! Not that’s refreshing. His attitude is very much opposite to Allan Iverson’s “Practice, practice, man we’re talking about practice” statement.
Last night we had a visitor from Altamonte (Greg loves riding with me to Altamonte Springs) Springs. L (a page from Brady’s blog-book) is spending the week at Cocoa Beach with his family. His oldest son, R, became good friends with our son Steven during Teen Week at Bible Camp. L told us he decided to take some time out of their vacation to visit “this church” that our son was from. He said L couldn’t stop talking about how nice Steven was and how they grew closer to God together during Teen Week.
Steven is like any other 15 soon to be 16 year old, he can have his moments but it’s refreshing to hear someone talk about your son in a positive, spiritual light.
But as we all know, for the human soul to be truly refreshed we must drink the living water that Jesus spoke of in John 4. This world, our schedules, people, and yes, even at times “the church” can drain us and cause us to thirst. Thank you God for allowing your Son and His Spirit to refresh us in our times of thirst.
My fellow bloggers – have one on me today.
John 4:7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."4:8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.4:9 The Samaritan woman therefore said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."4:11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?4:12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?"4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again;4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
There was the interview with Tony Battie, a player for the Orlando Magic, who was instrumental in their overtime win against the Utah Jazz. He was asked what he thought of their 4 or 5 game home winning streak. In essence he said, “We’re professionals so we need to be playing hard every night. We owe that to the organization and the fans. So we work hard and play hard. Sometimes we’ll come out on top and sometimes it won’t be enough but the bottom line is we give it our all each night.”
Wow! Not that’s refreshing. His attitude is very much opposite to Allan Iverson’s “Practice, practice, man we’re talking about practice” statement.
Last night we had a visitor from Altamonte (Greg loves riding with me to Altamonte Springs) Springs. L (a page from Brady’s blog-book) is spending the week at Cocoa Beach with his family. His oldest son, R, became good friends with our son Steven during Teen Week at Bible Camp. L told us he decided to take some time out of their vacation to visit “this church” that our son was from. He said L couldn’t stop talking about how nice Steven was and how they grew closer to God together during Teen Week.
Steven is like any other 15 soon to be 16 year old, he can have his moments but it’s refreshing to hear someone talk about your son in a positive, spiritual light.
But as we all know, for the human soul to be truly refreshed we must drink the living water that Jesus spoke of in John 4. This world, our schedules, people, and yes, even at times “the church” can drain us and cause us to thirst. Thank you God for allowing your Son and His Spirit to refresh us in our times of thirst.
My fellow bloggers – have one on me today.
John 4:7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."4:8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.4:9 The Samaritan woman therefore said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."4:11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?4:12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?"4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again;4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
