July 5th: The sweat was pouring off my head. My mouth was parched. My face was beat red. I was weak. I had just finished my first competitive race of the summer.It was a muggy, hot summer day and I was beat. It was only 5 miles, but it could have been 25. At that point, I couldn’t tell the difference! My body was falling apart and it was in need.

Now. Imagine if after that race, I ran over to the runner’s tent and grabbed a Mountain Dew. Or a bag of pretzels? Worse yet, what if I picked up a half empty can of Diet Coke laying alongside the route? How do you think my body would’ve responded? I’ll tell you. Not well! It didn’t need trash, sugar or salty carbs–it needed clean, fresh, cool water!

I can’t help but think that in our own lives, we grab something to satisfy our hunger that won’t really do the job. When we need to be grabbing for a tall drink from the Living Well, we are grabbing empty calories from a dying world.

Diet experts will tell you that many times when you get an urge to eat, you should first grab a glass of water. A lot of times, you are thirsty and not hungry! You may be saving yourself a few hundred calories a day if you would just grab a glass of water instead of a bag of chips. (I follow this rule and it does work!)

There will be times in your life that you don’t even KNOW you had a need until that need has been fulfilled properly. I’m pretty sure that if I had reached for the pretzels I would’ve immediately known that they didn’t satisfy my thirst! In fact, it would have made it much worse. Talk to many people who came to know the Lord later in life. They will testify that they were grabbing prestige, money, and relationships to fulfill their void, only to find that their true hunger and thirst was quenched by our Savior.

Check out what the Bible says about it.

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.(Psalm 107:8-9)

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)

Look. We’ve all been there. We’ve made the bad decision of quenching our desire with the wrong thing. We walk away feeling empty (sometimes literally!) and looking for the next thing to fill that need.

Take a moment now and reflect: (physically and spiritually)

~ Identify the triggers that make you lurch for the unhealthy option. (boyfriends, tv, exhaustion etc)
~ Turn on your sensors so that you are aware of the things that make you reach for an unhealthy option.
~ Make an action plan for recovery for when you grab the wrong thing, because it will happen!

If you are willing to share anything that you reflected on above, please add it to the comment section below. We can learn from one another’s experiences.

Go ahead. Reach out and drink. Drink slow. Drink long. Sip on the cool, refreshing Spirit that is our everlasting, Living Well!

(I’d be remiss not to mention my dear friend Courtney’s blog, Women Living Well. There is no doubt that you will be blessed by her blogs!! I have learned so much from her!)