Thirst

Psalm 42:1

“As the deer pants for slowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” 

I drank 2 liters of water today. Before 10 am. “Today,” I announced, “I am going to stay on top of dehydration!” Most days, I drink to replenish the water that I have already lost. But today, I was determined to stay hydrated and beat the heat before I started even getting dry.  

And it took 2 liters before 10 am to accomplish that. I guess that’s just what you have to do sometimes.   

“You know, we Africans don’t really drink water,” Adama told me when we were in Kimini.  

“What do you mean?” I asked as I chugged water out of my bottle.  

“Like what you are doing right now,” he said. “We don’t drink. Except maybe at meals.”  

“Are you serious?” I asked, astounded. I couldn’t believe it.  I thought about my studies of the human body and the importance of fluid and electrolyte balance. I thought about my own self and what would happen to me if I didn’t drink water for just one day. And these Africans with their dark skin can work in the fields all day in the scorching sun and not drink a thing. How in the world are these people still even alive? I thought to myself.  

Psalm 42:1 struck me in a new way when I read it one of the following mornings. “As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” I have come to know thirst in a new way while I have lived here. When it is a burning 115 degrees outside and we are walking through the market with no air conditioning or fans or sometimes even shade to escape the heat, I get so thirsty that I can’t stop thinking about water until I can taste it on my tongue. When the sun is blazing and the sweat is drowning me, I get so thirsty that I pant for water. Now, in the context of such heat and dryness, the idea of thirsting and panting after God means so much more. Do I pant after Jesus like that? 

In the beginning of Psalm 42, God is like a calm stream of water to satisfy our thirst. Later in verse 7, God is compared to the “deep” and to the “roar of a waterfall”. He is like “breakers” and “waves” that crash over us. Once you get a taste of the stream water, you find yourself in a tumultuous waterfall or a deep, deep ocean of God’s all-satisfying love and grace.  

Please join me in praying for the thirst of the Burkinabe people. Pray that their bodies will thirst physically so that they can gain the strength they need to carry on in this hot, dry desert. But even more importantly, pray for their souls to thirst after God like a deer panting for streams of water. They will never know how wonderful the Living Water tastes until they first experience extreme thirst. They will never even desire Christ until they recognize how much they need Him. Please pray for deep to cry out for deep, that the people of Burkina may come to the stream, come to the fountain, come to the ocean and drink deeply and even drown in the depth of His amazing love.