So Thirsty…

Think of a time when you were so thirsty that your thirst was all-consuming.

Have you ever been that thirsty? That all you could think about was getting some water?

As the first Ugandan mission team prepped for our trip, the employee of Samaritan’s Feet kept telling us we needed to buy bottled water in the Amsterdam airport. She insisted that we buy the liter bottles. Yes, they would be heavy and bulky to handle, but we would need them.

Because we were slammed for time and also majorly jet-lagged, most of us forgot the water.

I’m not really a “water fan” – so typically a little goes a long way . . . therefore, I kept my bottle on the plane and figured that would be enough.

This was our very first trip to Uganda, our first time with Pastor Geoffrey, and no one knew what the next 36 hours would actually entail.

It was quite a learning curve. One each one of us would do again, but still – the challenges before us were more than we ever imagined.

After flying for almost 24 hours, staying (trying to sleep) in a rather warm hotel while sleeping under a mosquito net, and having no additional water, we boarded a bus  and rode the eight hour trip to Nebbi.

This was when the need for water came into play.

The important thing to note is that Pastor Geoffrey did purchase bottled water for us. The problem came with the cultural difference and understanding of need.

Geoffrey purchased us the same amount of water he would buy for a bus load of Ugandans traveling eight hours. Our American bodies were used to about three times that amount of water. By the time we arrived in Nebbi, the power was out in the town so no stores (I use that term loosely) were open to buy additional water.

All many of us could think of was water. Personally – I’ve never WANTED for water in my entire life . . . but that night, all I could think of was how good it would taste. We realized that Geoffrey had no knowledge of our deep thirst – we had to ask.

This week we will explore the “Getting Naked” practice of calling out to God, “WHEN!?!?!”

“When, God, will you hear me? When, God, will you answer me?”

The calling out is known as aspiration. Aspiration has two meanings –

So in spiritual terms – aspiration is a life-and-death thirst  . . . a deep and passionate desire to survive and thrive as a person of authentic faith.

The way that we begin to do that is by calling out, “When?”

The beauty of the parallels of the water story and God is . . .

As soon as daybreak came Geoffrey went and bought every person on the team not just one but two two-liter bottles of water. That day and everyday. We had so much water our bladders were swimming by the end of the week.

That is the beauty about God’s love and grace – it is infinite and boundary-less. When we call out when, eventually the peace will come. It just may take a little searching and asking!