DAY 113 - [DON'T] STAY THIRSTY
ZACH ATWOOD, YA EVENTS & OPERATIONS TEAM LEAD
If you’ve been around church for a while, you’ve been exposed to a language we call “Christianese”. What does that mean? According to Wikipedia (super reliable source), “Christianese (or Christianeze) refers to the contained terms and jargon used within many of the branches and denominations of Christianity as a functional system of religious terminology.”
One piece of Chirstanese that we say time and time again is “I’m just in a dry season of life” or “I’m in a desert season!” In saying this, we don’t mean we are literally in a drought or lost in a dry Sahara-like environment. If we translate this out of Christianese and into modern-day English, it means “I’m not connecting with God right now.” or “I’m not feeling Him right now”.
Personally, I feel like I’m walking through one of these “desert seasons”. I think with all that’s going on in our world (the unrest, the pain, the fighting), my soul is tired and I’m struggling to be with Him. Don’t get me wrong, I’m trying! I think… I’m going through my day, listening to worship, reading His word, trying to find ways to connect with Him, but I’m not hearing anything. I’m not feeling anything.
One day, I was reading the Bible, hoping to hear from God, and I came across this verse:
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
Psalm 63:1
Dang. That’s convicting.
As I analyze this season, I have to ask myself if I’m really trying to find Him, or am I going through the motions hoping that He will come? I know my soul is thirsting and my flesh is fainting, but instead of seeking Him, I’m consuming distractions that parches my soul for temporary relief. Instead of earnestly seeking Him in new ways and fighting to be with Him, I’m spending hours on social media or with Netflix in an attempt to fill a void that only Living Water can fill. Instead of spending my precious time listening and digesting worship songs and scripture, I’m going through the motions doing the “right” thing hoping He’ll reward fruitless behavior.
These seasons are real and dealt with by so many of us Christians; but if we really desire to get out of these seasons, we have to explore how we got there and why we are walking through it. So YA, some of us are in a dry and distant season of life, but what are our actions showing? Are we going through the motions, hoping that He’ll meet us? Or are we seeking, searching, and earnestly seeking Him?