In Need of Water

"I stretch out my hands to You; 

My soul longs for You, as a parched land. Selah."

Psalm 143:6 (NASB)

Last week my friend Joel and I took a backpacking trip to Isle Royale National Park.  We cruised out to the island on the Ranger III, the largest ship owned and operated by the National Park Service.  The ride across Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, took about 6 hours; about 1 hour down the Portage Canal and 5 hours across the big lake.

The first day we hiked just a bit less than 7 miles to Lane Cove.  At that point, we already knew we had forgotten our water filter.  That meant in order to have clean drinking water we had to boil it.  No problem!  I brought my backpacking stove and fuel.  Well, unfortunately, when I got up the next morning and put my stove together I realized I also forgot to bring matches to light the stove.

So we hiked another 4 and a quarter miles down to the Threemile campground.  We left our backpacks there and trekked all the way back to the main harbor to get water and matches, another 5+ miles round trip.  Even though we were hiking mere feet from Lake Superior, technically we were not supposed to drink the water.  We were exhausted from all the hiking and probably dehydrated from lack of water.  We had finished off the last of our water just before leaving Threemile.  

When we got back to the harbor the first thing we did, of course, was drink water!  Then we sat at a table in the Grille, drank more water and Cherry Coke, shared a pizza, and played cards.  We hiked all that way for one sole purpose:  WATER.  We needed it.  We didn't want to go a whole day without it.  We were revived and rejuvenated, though still physically tired from all the hiking.

That's how God's presence is for our spiritual lives.  We cannot live without His presence.  We need Him daily.  We need His word for sustenance.  We need His Spirit for strength.  He gives us the strength we need to carry on.