Refreshing Water

Last week, I wrote of my plan to take a Sabbath rest. I want to tell you a bit about it. I drove to the Blue Ridge of Virginia, just down the road from Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria, Virginia. The Martins graciously hosted me, allowing me time and space. I walked every day, though not in the woods because I really did not want to be mistaken for a deer by a bow and arrow hunter. I slept in. I read and I wrote. I rode through the fields late one night with Christopher. I ate jam homemade by Betty. Earle told me that the farm’s well water was tested, and it was purer than bottled water. I believe him. It tasted good and refreshing.

As I read and wrote, I thought and prayed about Christ Crossman a lot. I knew you were all in good hands, so I could relax about the details for a bit. It was the bigger picture, the vision that I prayed about. When Jen and I were at the Leadership Institute in Kansas, a theme seemed to emerge from the workshops I attended. We are called as a congregation, and as individuals, to be a bridge over which someone might walk to meet Jesus, to find light and healing in their journey. Jen spoke of being like a well where people might come to sit on the wall with Jesus and discover living water. That includes us also. We need to take time to sip at that well, refreshing and deepening our spirits within us.

I like that image. I drank deeply of the water at the farm, and I found a time of rest and renewal. I want to keep drinking deeply of the living water so that my spirit will be so full of Jesus’ Spirit that others will find a healing rest in my presence.

John 4:13-14

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”