75% of our bodies are made up of water. We need this water in order to keep our bodies running smoothly. We lose water routinely, however, when we breathe, when we sweat, and when we use the bathroom. This water has to be replaced, or we can become dehydrated.
There are also many conditions that can cause us to lose water more rapidly, thus putting us at high risk of dehydration. These include fever, heat exposure, vomiting, diarrhea, increased urination due to infection, diseases such as diabetes, impaired ability to drink (such as being in a coma or having a swallowing problem), no access to safe drinking water, significant injuries to skin, and the inability to seek appropriate water and food (an infant or disabled person, for example).
Symptoms of dehydration include the following: dry mouth/eyes, sweating may stop, muscles cramp, nausea and vomiting, heart palpitations, lightheadedness, especially when standing, weakness, decreased urine output, and when dehydration is severe, it can denote a life-threatening emergency.
In general, dehydration causes people to be less able to perform at their peak. It sets people up for weight gain, joint and muscle pain, fuzzy thinking, disease, and fatigue. It can cause irritability, anxiety, depression, food cravings, and allergies, and emergency thirst signals include feeling sick upon rising in the morning, heartburn, migraines, angina, joint pain, back pain, colitis pain, fibromyalgic pain, constipation, late-onset diabetes, and hypertension.
Not exactly what any of us need in our lives, is it?
With the problems of dehydration being so complex, wouldn’t it make sense for this to be a fairly rare occurrence? Wouldn’t it make sense for us to only become dehydrated when we are sick or in extreme situations? I mean, all we normally have to do is just go and get a cup of water!
Why is it then, that the majority of the world suffers from dehydration?
In many parts of the world, water isn’t clean enough for consumption, and sometimes the only available clean water is guarded for certain ones in the community. If these are the conditions where you live, then dehydration isn’t surprising.
But why is it that dehydration affects an estimated 75% of the population in North America, where drinkable water runs from every tap in every home, where we waste water as if it were a renewable resource?
Yes! That’s what the studies show!
Studies also show that those who do not drink water have a diminished thirst mechanism, and they often mistake their thirst for hunger. Thus they eat instead of drinking. You see, it works like this: When your body sends you a message and you stop listening to it, it will eventually stop sending you that message!
I have the reputation where I work of pushing my patients to drink more water. The number one reason I get for why they don’t drink is that they aren’t thirsty. These same patients will usually tell me, once they have gotten their water intake up to acceptable levels, that they now suddenly feel thirsty whereas they never did before!
Okay, all of this is very interesting, but what is the point of all this in a devotional?
Just this: Where clean drinking water may not always be available, Jesus tells us to come to the well and drink. He tells us, “…whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14 NKJV)
So why is it that most of the world is spiritually dehydrated?
Some know Jesus, the source of living water, but many don’t. Just like the symptoms of physical dehydration, spiritual dehydration also brings about disastrous results. We can’t perform at our peak. Our thinking gets fuzzy, and it results in cravings for something-anything!-to satisfy our Spiritual thirst.
But if Jesus’ living water is so abundantly available, why have we become so spiritually dehydrated?
Because we’ve become so used to our God-less state that we no longer recognize our need for spiritual water! Our spiritual “thirst mechanism” has stopped working! When we feel spiritually “thirsty”, we mistake it for hunger, and we try to fill it with other things. Work. Love. Friendships. Drugs. Sex. To name a few.
Yet Jesus stands patient by, begging us to “come to the well”, to drink the living water so that we will never thirst again!
People in some parts of the world have an excuse for being dehydrated because there isn’t abundant clean water to drink. But the good news is this: Everyone has access to Jesus’ overflowing well of water! There is no excuse for spiritual dehydration! Why not partake of that living water more often, friends?
It is recommended that we sip through 8-10 cups of water every day. Why not take frequent “sips” of Jesus� water throughout each day as well?
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries.