thirsty

My husband and I went back-
packing this week with our 5-month-
old son and a friend. We were out for two nights, and it was beautiful weather, lovely scenery, and a good time was had by all. I enjoy backpacking because it's so nice to be away from civilization and realize how much you can live without, and then it's so nice to be home and realize how grateful I am to have things like running water and a place to get away from most bugs!

One thing that stood out to me from this trip was what it's like to be thirsty. The first night we camped near a lake, but the next night we hiked up to the top of a little peak looking toward a snow-capped mountain, and we only had the water we'd purified and carried from the lake. Now, we could have hiked back down to the lake if we'd been desperate for water--it was only 4 miles, but it was pretty steep. But we chose for the four of us to live off of about 7-8 liters as we hiked up, and all through that hot afternoon (around 90 degrees Fahrenheit) and evening, and the next morning when we hiked out. That included the water needed to make our meals.

My husband and I were talking about it when we got home and thought about the fact that we have probably never been that thirsty before in our lives. For one thing, when you know you can't drink much water, you start to want more of it. And then add onto that the fact that we were in very hot weather and I'm still breastfeeding our baby, and we hiked 8 miles during that time, and we used about 2 liters on our dinner, and you see that it wasn't really all that much water!

Of course, this experience was nothing compared to people who survive in deserts or other places where they can't get much water, but for us this was a major waterless event.

We got back to civilization and I drank a liter and a half almost immediately!

So it got me thinking about spiritual parallels...

Why do I often let myself get so spiritually thirsty when there's a lake (and I don't even have to purify the water!) just 4 miles away? And it's even all downhill!