GIFTS: Your Soul's Many Cries for Water . . . .

"Thousands have lived without love, not one without water" (W.H.Auden, 1907--73, respected Anglo-American poet, philosopher, and writer).

Love is important; water is necessary. This was brought home to us when we were without water for over eight hours because of street repairs last September. We still loved each other here at home, but it was not enough. For drinking, cleaning, cooking, and sustaining life itself, there is no adequate substitute for water. We can't live without it. Sounds pretty obvious, doesn't it!

What about living water, as spoken of by the Lord Jesus Christ? He said He had water that shall be in the one who receives it "a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14, see verses 7--15). But there is that word again : "receive". We have to have our cup turned the right way up, or our hand a cupped hand, and the vessel must be clean.

He said, "Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost" (3 Nephi 12:6). The Holy Ghost is the living water. The Holy Ghost is the oil in the lamp of the wise Saint. But neither the power nor the gift of the Holy Ghost is automatic. It must be sought and thirsted after. As we cited last week from Job, I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. Thus it seems that we have stumbled on something even more necessary than H 2 O . . . "the words of His mouth". Can we live without them? Most of us do a good job of trying to live without them, or with taking occasional sips and nibbles, when the divine command and invitation is to feast on His words, to search them, and to treasure them as the precious and rare things they are.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote, "A few little flowers will spring up briefly in the dry gullies through which torrents of water pass occasionally; but it is steady streams that produce thick and needed crops. In the agriculture of the soul that has to do with nurturing attributes, flash floods are no substitute for regular irrigation."

In our family a few years ago we read a book entitled, "Your Body's Many Cries for Water," written by Iranian-born Dr. F. Batmanghelidj. All of his assets confiscated, and thrown into prison by the revolutionary regime, he learned the benefits of water while treating fellow prisoners. The only medicinal resource he had was water, impure water at that, to go along with the faith of his patients. The subtitle of his book is: "You Are Not Sick, You Are Thirsty!" --- and he recommends we drink a glass of water whenever we get hungry or feel a twinge of pain. He dedicates the book "To our Creator, with awe, humility, dedication, and love."

Most of us are dying of thirst and don't recognize it. Elder A. Theodore Tuttle of the Seventy told in general conference of the ship in a fog where the passengers had run out of water. They sent out an urgent signal for help. They received this reply, '"Let down your buckets where you are!" This made no sense for they were in the Atlantic Ocean. Again, the urgent plea. Again, the same reply: "Let down your buckets where you are!"

They did not know it, but they had drifted into the mouth of a freshwater river and were surrounded by living water. All they had to do was retrieve the living water that lay all around them.  Yes, they had an abundance of living water immediately available, but they were dying for lack of that knowledge.

We are in a similar situation. We are surrounded by living water. But, again, we stress, the drinking of it is not automatic. We must prepare our own vessels and thirst after the living water, and pay the price to get it. In this we must be independent. No one else can spoon feed us this living water. We must pay the price and seek it diligently for ourselves . . . . Do you believe this?!

Elder Packer said to the youth of the Church, "No one can compel you to taste of this living water. It can come only when you consent. . . . If you are to find it, you must pay more, by a thousandfold, than ever you paid before" (October 1969 CR).

Yes, the youth, their parents and grandparents must pay the price.  Because, "that which we obtain too easily we esteem too lightly" (Thomas Paine).  There is ample evidence that we esteem the Christ, the doctrine of Christ, and His holy scriptures lightly indeed, in favor of a social or an ethical gospel.

God bless us all to have a thirst-free Sabbath because of our feasting on the word of the Lord and on His sacramental meal. . . .  And recall too that the bread and the water are blessed and sanctified to the souls of all those who partake of them, for your soul cries out for His living water and the living bread of His word.

Steve