The first day of fall was last Saturday & this weekend looks like we’ll be only in the 90’s for highs. It’s the time of year I absolutely love living in the desert. The mornings are cool enough that sitting outside to drink my coffee has me grabbing a light jacket to watch the sunrise. And the evenings hold onto just a touch of heat, so I can leave it behind if we go outside with our kids while they ride their bikes around the neighborhood. It’s the time of year when people go outdoors for things other than a pool or splash pad.
This week, between meetings & clergy gathering events, I’ve been looking at the trees for the signs of the changing seasons & am struck by just how many didn’t survive the extreme heat of the past summer. It got me thinking about root systems & how plants have developed adaptive root systems to endure in the desert. Some have deep rooting, while others have lateral rooting. As you can imagine, they both have their advantages & disadvantages to surviving weather extremes like we experienced this past summer. Regardless, they all require living water, whether fresh water from recent rains or deeper-running waters from the reservoirs far underground. Without adequate access to living waters to counter the surface level droughts, even the deepest root systems will eventually fail & the plant will die.
Thankfully, we’re not like plants & trees since we can move when we find our lives are in a spiritual drought. We can change our circumstances through reading scriptures, prayer practices, small group studies, and coming together for worship. My morning time with coffee & watching the sun rise in silence is the space I carve out in my day to pour living water into my soul. I learned a long time ago I cannot wait for spiritual rain to fall down & fill up the reservoirs of faith development in my life. If I wait for that day to come, I will be like so many of the trees & plants that didn’t survive our intense summer. So instead, I know I need to take the time daily to be still & know the presence of God as the living water that feeds my soul, making sure that my faith doesn’t die from drought & joining with the Creator to grow my faith as I actively participate in the transformation of my life. It is one way I steward this life I’ve been given as wholly as possible. My hope & prayer is that however you can, you make the space in your life to pour living water into your soul, too.
In Christ’s Love,
