Dry

Dry. Completely dehydrated. Feeling like a rag wrung out then hung on the line in the hot summer sun, crispy. That was my state last week. If you look closely at me you can still see some of the residual effects of that day. My lips are slightly red and peeling. They are sore, sensitive and no matter how hard I search I can't seem to locate even one of the many chapsticks I own. Sigh. You know what, I'm not even sure how I got to such a state. It just crept up on me in my normal busy day. To be truthful I didn't even feel the thirst increasing and was blissfully unaware until I felt my lips begin to burn. My first indicator that I can't ignore. By the time I notice it is far too late, damage has been done and I will need to wait for healing. Being crept up on, that is my usual. Too busy to pause and take note. Unaware.

Did I ever tell you I worked at a nursery? The second season I was there we were greeted with what was meant as a sweet surprise from our employers. They had spent a month prepping our growing pots by prefilling them with soil. How thoughtful. Saving us time and work. Thing is, what seemed like a great time saving step turned into a very difficult start of our growing year. As that soil sat in those small pots in the hot hot greenhouses it slowly became dry, dryer, and finally, completely dry.

The thing I learned about dryness that year is it takes a whole lotta work and water to bring something so dry back to a state of being damp. Already damp soil is easy to wet. Just a bit of water on top, it soaks in and presto, wet dirt. Dry soil on the other hand won't take up water at all. It just runs through it and around it without changing it one bit. We had to soak those pots until the water ran through at least 5 times. These soakings had to be done slowly and over a fairly long period of time. If we started soaking in the morning the pots might be ready to plant by lunch time. It was a disaster.

As I think of how easy it is to let myself get dried out physically, I also take note that the same thing happens to my spirit when I get to busy, when I don't take care. Miss my daily time in the Word, start the day dry. Miss my prayer time, dry out a bit more. Don't hear good solid teaching from my pastor for a few weeks and I start to be crunchy. Thing is, this can happen when all is well, and my life is fine, I just get lazy. And they happen when things are rough, in desert times, when I am struggling, working hard to just survive. When I hurt I tend to hide. Either way the result is the same, my heart dries out, and it is so hard to get wet again.

Do you know how we finally solved our dry dirt problem that spring? We dumped all that dry dirt into fresh soil and mixed it in. The dry and the damp together. Perfectly the potting soil took up water and we could plant into it and grow something beautiful.

I have been spirituality dry many times, and it takes so much work and many many soakings to get wet again. There is always damage done and I need healing and forgiveness. As I ponder the process if rewetting, I have to think that mingling already damp with dry is the best solution. We so need each other. We need to pray over each other. Mix our lives together. Share our soft damp soil with someone who is so dry they are crispy. And never forget where our source is. Jesus, Living Water. The one who pours Himself out and makes rightness, righteousness available to us all.