Undesirable Water

Several months ago when I shared at Aqueous, I told a story about a man who was offered water on a hot day, but the man didn’t accept it because he had a bottle of water of his own that he was drinking from. I related this story to thankfulness, and how the man who already had a bottle of water could not possibly be thankful to the the man who offered him the drink of water. He was offered something that he already had. When God extends grace to us, and we think we have it all together, we push it away, and eventually tell God that he has done nothing for us. We can become like the man who was offered water, but turns it down because he refuses to admit the facade of his own water’s existence.

As I was walking around my neighborhood last night, I began to see this story in a whole new light. I began to see this as a story about missionality. A story about people who aren’t thirsty and yet are continually being offered water. A story where christians begin to look more like salesmen and less like Christ offering water at the well to the thirsty. I have several friends who do not follow Christ, and if I were to continue to ask them to come to my church or tell them how much they need God, I would be like the man offering water to a person who isn’t thirsty. This does nothing except make people really annoyed and shows them something that Christ wants no part of. I can offer that water till I am blue in the face, but to a person who is not thirsty, it means nothing. Sure, water is good for us, and we need it to survive, but try telling that to someone who is content with their diet coke.

Instead of continuing to offer water to those who aren’t thirsty, I think our time would be better spent praying for those to become thirsty and actually experience Christ for themselves. I can tell people all about my real experiences with Christ, but until they experience Christ tangibly in their own life, my words mean nothing to them; only something that they have heard, but never experienced.