The thirst underneath

At the fire department we teach new guys to find the seat of the fire. Not the flames. The seat. Where it's actually burning. You can spray water at flames all day and get nowhere, because the flames are the symptom. The seat is the problem.

Same with the thistle.

You can pull it. I've pulled plenty. It comes back, because the reason it got watered is still there. And the reason is almost always the same: I'm thirsty for something, and I'm trying to get it from the wrong place.

Approval. Control. Being needed. Being right. Being enough. Pick yours. Mine is being enough, and for a long time I tried to grow that out of my job, my performance, and what people said about me. It's a thistle. It looks good. It never once made me less thirsty.

Jesus met a woman at a well who'd been drinking from the wrong place for years. He didn't lecture her about the well. He told her about the water.

"Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again." (John 4:14, ESV)

Never thirsty again. Not "less thirsty." Not "thirsty, but managing it."

Most of what I water is my own attempt to manage the thirst. It's exhausting, and it doesn't work, because the thirst was never supposed to be managed. It was supposed to be answered.

So before you pull anything this week, sit with the harder question. Not "what am I watering," but "what am I thirsty for?" Say it out loud. Then say it to Him.

So, what are you watering this week?