Rivers of Living Water

It’s been an interesting week.  I am in the process of purchasing a townhouse so I’m beginning the packing process.  Arrgh!  I have so much stuff!  How can this be?  How can I have so much and still always want more?  What is wrong with me?  Seriously!

Yesterday, as I was faxing the parts of my loan application to the mortgage broker, I was also on the phone with some people trying to get a homeless woman some housing.  I was excited about my low interest rate and all the stuff I want to buy for my place.  She is excited that she will very soon be able to sleep in a place that is safe for her and her child.  I want nice carpeting.  She wants a roof.  She thanked me profusely for helping her.  I am deeply humbled by her humility.

My bucket is full.  My cup runneth over.  I own a car which makes me one of the riches people in the world.  I have stuff.  But I have a lot more than stuff.  I have a God who fills my bucket every day.  Willing to pour Himself out for me, He offers all I need and vows to fill me up.  But it’s still not enough.  Again, what is wrong with me?  But I think I know what’s wrong with me.  There’s a hole in my bucket.  I can’t hold Him very long.

I think this is why Jesus told us that rivers of living water would flow out of our hearts (John 7:38).  We are not meant to be buckets.  We are designed to be fountains.  God’s goodness does not simply flow to us and stop.  His powerful abundant Life flows right through us.  As God is in the process of giving me a new place to live, He is using me to provide someone else a place to live.  The flow does not stop with me but passes through.  A bucket spills and leaks and runs out.  A fountain is always wet, always full, always flowing.  I want to be a fountain, not a bucket.  I want my life to point out to others rather than my own selfish stuff because I know that if God is flowing through me, even for the benefit of others, I am always full.

That’s how Jesus lived.  He did not consider equality with God something to be hoarded but emptied Himself and became one of us.  By allowing the Father to flow through Him to us, His joy was complete.  The Father was well pleased with Him.  I want to embrace my humanity in the same way.  May rivers of living water flow through us to a dying, thirsty world.  May we always be full enough to overflow and may we, in that abundance, stop hoarding and let God, Himself, flow from us to others.