In my addictions class, my professor made an interesting spin to a familiar quote. It goes like this:
“You can lead a horse to the water but you can’t make it drink. But you can make the horse thirsty.”
In the context of addiction counseling, my professor shared that we often spend countless hours and energy bringing people the information and tools necessary for change and treatment, in the hopes that they can use it and walk it out for their transformation. Yet many of the people struggling with addiction don’t always take it or even know that they need it.
Addiction is a little more complicated than how I’m explaining it or making it seem because it falls under a continuum of severity and also depends on each person’s risk level to the addiction.
However, what was interesting was that although we can’t “make a horse drink” or in addictions case, make someone choose abstinence or sobriety, we can “make the horse thirsty.”
“Making the horse thirsty” is really about motivation and reminding “the horse” that it needs to drink water. In the case of addiction, it means motivating people on their journey wherever they are to keep trying and never giving up. It also involves reminding people that “water” is something that you need to stay alive.
As I think about this concept, I can’t help but think about our journey with Christ. Sometimes God leads us to water without us realizing that we are even thirsty and sometimes we don’t want to drink.
Did you know that if you’re thirsty, you’re already mildly dehydrated. This means that getting thirsty is one of your body’s last resorts to getting you to drink water and replenish those electrolytes.
If you don’t respond to your dehydration things can escalate and you can experience headache, fatigue, dizziness and more.
They say the best way to beat dehydration is to drink before you get thirsty.
Let me suggest one thing for you to do on your spiritual journey:
- Don’t wait till you are spiritually thirsty to drink the living water of God.
John 6:35 (NIV)
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
Jeremiah 17:13 (NIV)
13 Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.
John 7:37-39 (NIV)
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[a] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Father, you know us better than we know ourselves. You know the number of hairs on our head and you know what we need, when we need it. You know when we are thirsty before we do. I pray that you would continue to lead us to you, our life giving water. Teach us how to choose you daily so that we may never go thirsty. Show us how to receive your living water and may follow the leading of your Holy Spirit. Remind us of what we need to live in this world. In Jesus’ name, we pray Amen!