hot green plastic water

I lie in the dust; revive me by your word. (Psalm 119:25)

Have you ever been thirsty? I mean really thirsty, not just needing a drink. To the point that you were thinking of nothing but something to drink, anything at all.

I took basic training in the US Army in Ft Bliss at El Paso, TX. We did all of our marching and outside stuff west of El Paso near White Sands. They would truck us a certain distance out and then we would walk the rest of the way.

The terrain was desert. There were little or no plants, and the ground was sand. When I got out of basic and went to AIT where I was to be trained in communications, I had thighs that were so big that I had trouble wearing pants that fit my waist. I had to buy larger pants just to get them over my thighs. That came from the marching through sand.

But as we marched, the sergeants would not let us drink. This served two purposes.

One was that we learned how to go anyway even though we were so thirsty we thought we would die. Sometimes it is impossible to get water and you may not have enough time to stop and drink. That was helpful in combat.

Second was because they were cruel and enjoyed the pain and suffering they could inflict on the trainees. I believed that at the time and getting to know more and more about human nature (especially after coming to know jail and prison guards) I believe it more now than before.

We would get thirsty. Real, painful, skin crackling thirsty. Marching through sand in well over 100 degree heat in the blazing sunshine thirsty.

After a while we would stop to rest. But then again they would hold us off on our water. After a few minutes they would tell us we could drink. And we did.

Not long before I came into the army, someone had the idea of making the canteens from olive drab green plastic. So in the heat the water inside the green plastic canteens would be warm and even tasted green.

We stopped and drank our hot green plastic water. Nothing in this world has ever tasted so good as that hot green plastic water. Our throats were so parched, we were so dry. It was as fine a water as I have tasted before or since.

There is a perspective you have to have in order to enjoy hot green plastic water. The perspective is that if you don’t get some water soon, you will die.

In the Louis L’Amour novels, the characters do not drink much water even though they are in the desert. They know that they cannot waste any on just casual drinking. Of course, being a Louis L’Amour novel, they always have enough for coffee, but still. They know they have to make it last. They cannot always count on finding a spring.

And sometimes they find a spring, but it is brackish or alkaline water. Even so, they drink it and are grateful for it.

Most people go their entire lives and are not really thirsty or hungry for that matter. I have been both.

But when you are really thirsty or really hungry, what you eat or drink matters less than you ever thought it would.

We get to a point in life where it seems like a spiritual desert. We are alone. We are afraid. We are lying in the dust of life and we are spiritually thirsty. Then we look at the written word and the living Word of God. We take them into us and we are revived.

We are not revived simply by reading the Bible. We are revived when we allow the Word, that is Jesus, to come into our hearts and satisfy us, for lack of a better word. We are revived when we read his written word and take it to heart and are encouraged by it.

There is no reason to be thirsty in our spiritual lives when we have such great water, and such great satisfaction at our disposal, at our fingertips, near our hearts.