Cool, Clear Water

Summer heat brings it on, that always thirsty feeling. I’m trying to monitor what I spend those hot summer afternoons guzzling. The morning is pretty well set – two really huge cups of coffee with cream and sometimes sugary flavoring syrups. And we’re not messing with that, okay?

But after lunch is when the real thirst starts. I got an interesting email about Coke™ vs water. You may have seen it and the facts are startling:

75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

Even mild dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.

Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%., and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

There were also a number of pretty gross facts about Coke™, but I checked them out on Snopes and, thankfully, they were exaggerated. I’m glad because sometimes nothing but a cold Coke will do the trick, am I right? While I did not research each of the water facts, I did enough reading to know that they make sense.

When we’re thirsty, really thirsty, only water gets into our bodies and does its good work. I don’t think any of us will argue that fact. But what about drinking all the water we need to keep operating at an optimum level?

I’m sitting on the porch and I’m thinking, how will I do this? I could buy some Perrier™ or some flavored seltzer. But the bubbles are a whole other thing and not so good for me. I could buy some of those little flavor packets to put into my bottle of water.

Why not just drink the straight stuff, the pure, clean water? Isn’t this how we approach church and Bible study? “I wasn’t crazy about that message – why can the preacher not shake in a packet of ‘feel good’ and ‘abundant living’. I don’t want to just read the Bible – it’s boring. Why not add some sugar Bible study to liven it up?”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I love “feel good” and “abundant living” and a good Bible study energizes me and gets me moving in the right direction. But the water – the living water, the Good News – is just fine on its own. It gives me all the energy and peace I need when I remember to get my full amount every day.

Jeremiah 2:13; John 4:13, 14
My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water…Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”