Water

Clean water is one of the big issues facing the world today. Millions of people don’t have access to clean water, and are at a high risk of contracting diseases from their dirty water sources. It’s a serious problem, but one that I couldn’t relate to much until today.

We are currently under a boil order. Everything that comes out of the faucet has to be boiled before it goes into the mouth. I have never, ever had to boil my water before. I’ve never once thought that the stuff coming out of my kitchen sink might not be good to drink. I trust the water in the faucets.

That is the scary part. The landlord in the mobile home park forgot to put up signs saying “boil order.” Besides that, if you don’t go past an entrance, you don’t know that there is a boil order. No one calls your home. No one knocks on your door. It’s up to you to find out if your water is good or bad, and there is not direct warning when it changes. I got lucky. A maintenance man was walking by when I took the trash out, and mentioned the boil order. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known about it at all.

This is how the church acts sometimes. Jesus is more essential than water, in fact He is the Living Water. Millions of people around the world don’t have this water, they don’t know Jesus or they only know a diluted, false version of him, like the unsafe water coming out of my faucet. They won’t know anything is wrong until someone tells them.

Yet many churches don’t knock on their doors or call them up. They don’t go out to reach the lost. They set up fancy buildings with big crosses on top and little slogans or Bible verses on the front sign. Then, they expect people to come to them, to seek out the Good News they have to offer. The problem is that many of the lost don’t know to seek, they don’t know what to look for, they don’t know where to go. That’s why their lost. I needed to be told about the boil order. People need to be told about Jesus.

We need to be more proactive in our approach. We need to get out on the streets and meet people where they are. We shouldn’t expect our example and our churches, our activities and our strange rituals to draw people in. Jesus didn’t. He went to people and taught them where they were. He sought the lost, he lived with them, he got to know them and made them his priority. We lose when we make religion our priority, instead of people. We lose when we make church our priority, instead of God. People need water, and we shouldn’t let them continue to live on poisonous lies.

Be living water. Flow. Leave your home, your church, your safe zone. Get out and teach. Tell people about the gift you have been given. Or else they’ll never know.