Drinking Deeply
April 6, 2018
As in many rural areas of the Midwest, showing livestock at the county fair was a sort of “coming of age” activity in Schuyler County Illinois. My brothers and I showed cattle in several dairy/beef classes and I have fond memories of those days. The anticipation, crowded wash racks, grooming, hoof polish, and show halters all contributed to great days at the fair. And the nights spent sleeping in the barns with feet propped up on the show box are legend in themselves.
One of my favorite memories is an unusual one. When I was showing crossbred market calves, the judges preferred them to be very round and plump. One way to help this was to get your calf to drink a lot of water right before you walked into the ring. There were a multitude of tricks to getting the calf to consume water, one of the favored ones involved using koolaid to make the water taste different. There’s something uniquely satisfying about watching a half ton animal drink deeply. They keep drinking and drinking and drinking until there can’t be any room left in their digestive tract.
When was the last time you drank deeply from God’s Word? Although there are many “tricks” to help you start, what keeps us there is the refreshing that washes over our soul as we drink deeply. Our souls are refreshed as we meditate on the place of forgiveness in our life from Luke 11. Our lives are refreshed as we contemplate the freedom that Christ brings in Romans 5. Our relationships are blessed when the Joy God gives is allowed to overwhelm us and then we allow it to frame our interactions with others (Hebrews 1:9). When you feel parched from life’s difficulties or distant from God because of circumstances outside of your control, drink deeply. When you do, you’ll never regret it.
Pastor Dave
Categorised in: Uncategorized