3 Nov, 2011
Live Deeper
A Tale of Two Glasses of Water
As I drove home from church last night I began thinking about the teenagers I work with. I started considering the choices that they make on a regular basis and my heart broke. So many of them live such shallow lives. Their life consist of moving from one pleasure to the next because they can find nothing to satisfy them. As their faces and names flashed in my minds eye I devised a simple (I'm sure flawed) parable.
A man stood on the edge of a desert holding a single glass of water. As he stood watching the horizon another man, nearly dead, crawled over the top of a near by dune. The man with the glass ran to the dying man knowing the cup in his hand contained the life saver. When the man with water reached the desert man he was astounded to find the dying man refused to accept more than a thimble full of water. The man with the glass urged him to take it all so his life might be saved. The dying man said, "I only want he enough to wet my lips and then continue further in my journey." The man with the glass replied, "If you will drink all the water I have your life will be saved." The man from the desert again said he wanted only to keep moving in the life he already had. "You are barely alive," came the response. The dying man said, "At least I am not completely dead." Saddened the man with the water glass sat down his glass in front of the dying man and walked away to get a new glass and maybe be able to offer the life saving water to another.
2 Timothy 4:3-5
New International Version (NIV)
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
What does God's Story scripture teach us about how people will treat the offering of a deeper life?
Paul wrote this letter to Timothy for a few reasons. Foremost in my mind was because of his concern for the church during this time. The church was under much duress and they needed encouraged and reminded of the Gospel. Paul was also offering instruction to Timothy to, persevere, keep preaching and be ready to suffer if need called for it.
At this point in Paul's letter he is encouraging Timothy to stand his ground against a world that is shallow. People didn't want to hear about a deeper life they wanted to live from pleasure to pleasure. Anyone who stood for a deeper life was in the way and needed pushed aside. Timothy was to plant his feet and not get swept away by the tide of those not putting up with sound doctrine.
How can we connect today's God's Story scripture to our lives?
You and I live in a world that, in a lot of ways, is similar to Timothy's... We are surrounded on all sides by people who want to be told what they want to hear. They don't want to hear that there is a deeper life then the one they are choosing to live. They don't want to be told that there is right and wrong in life. So we must cling to Paul's wisdom and stand firm. Here are a few ideas to help you along the way:
- Memorize 2 Timothy 4:3-5
- Look for people to encourage you and people you can encourage. (Like Paul and Timothy did for each other.)
- Decide to live the deepest life you can and then start searching the scriptures for how to do that.
How can we connect today's story, God's Story scripture, and our story to others?
When I think about the parable I wrote my heartbreaks at the number of young people I know that live like the dying man. The water of life is right in front of them, but they refuse to drink it because they think their life is fine. They feel like they don't need more life than they have. We can't really force them to drink we can only set the glass in front of them and hope they will wise up enough to find new life. In the mean time there are somethings we can do...
- Stand firm... Your life might be the best chance your friends have of seeing Jesus. Live in such a way that He is obvious in you.
- Keep offering water... You can't force your friends to accept Jesus and you shouldn't try (it's God's responsiblity), but it is okay to offer them living water. "Hey, wanna go with me to Campus Life?" "Will you go with me to my youth group's event?"
- Sometimes you have no other choice than to set the glass down in front of a friend and walk away. "This is Jesus, I've showed you all I can, now you have to decide how you will respond my friend."
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