Thirsty deer and a thirsty man

As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. - Psalm 42v1

I have never seen a thirsty deer. I don't know very much about deer. I also am quite certain that I have never been truly, death threatening thirsty.

I do however think I came close the being truly thirsty a couple of times. Once, way back in the early eighties I was doing sheet metal work and duct installation. We were working in an attic somewhere in south Huntsville in the middle of the summer. Now, unless you have been in an attic in Alabama in the middle of the summer you probably don't get the impact of that statement. The air conditioning technician left his thermometer in the attic. As I crawled by trying to keep on the joists I noticed the temperature. It was close to 130F (55C). Needless to say, it was just hot. When you work in that kind of heat you are supposed to rotate with your work mate every 10 minutes or so. I was of course sweating profusely.

I knew I should have stopped, but I was back in a corner and thought I would just finish off one little piece of work. Suddenly I realised I wasn't sweating. Anyone who has lived in a hot climate knows that is not good news. My vision was getting dodgy and had a hard to time getting to the attic access ladder. I finally got there and started down, but fell the last 3-4 rungs. I knew I had to get water into my system. At that moment water was the most important thing in the world to me.

I was not strong enough to walk, but I saw a bathroom just down the hall. I crawled to it and dragged myself up looking for something drink from. It was the kid's bathroom so they had little tiny paper cups at the sink. I grabbed one and began filling, drinking, and refilling tiny cups of water. Finally I began to cool down and made my way outside to a shade tree where I rested until I cooled off. I was to sick to continue so we had to leave the job site. By the time we got the the shop it was almost quitting time and I thought I was better.

I was going to give blood that day so I stopped by the centre. The nurse took my temperature twice, and would not take my blood because my temperature was still over 104F (40C). I am still amazed when I think of that day, because I have no idea how I did not go into heat stroke.

I say all that to point out one thing – my desperate desire for water when I was at the bottom of the ladder.

If that is the kind of thirst God is talking about here I am terribly convicted. I don't know that I have ever thirsted for God with that kind of thirst. I think of Christians around the world who cannot read their Bibles or go to church like we can. I think of their thirst to read their Bible or go to church and I think how I can take those things for granted.

I hope we don't need God to take those things away to give us that thirst.