Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Importance of Water


As many of you know my wife Sherry had a horrible experience this weekend. She had to endure the excruciating pain of a kidney stone. Thankfully, the stone passed this morning, and she is beginning to feel normal again. If you have had a stone before you know that the main thing any doctor will tell you to do is to drink lots and lots of water. It's pretty obvious why, the kidney stone should eventually get flushed out if you drink enough. All the water focus at my house since Sunday got me thinking about how the effect water has on our body is similar to the effect God's word has on our lives. Now I'm not a doctor, (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) but it seems like the two main things water does for us are this: 1. it hydrates our body which is necessary for survival 2. it flushes out impurities from our body. I'm sure there are lots more things that water is needed for but those are two obvious ones that I thought of. My 10th grade Biology teacher, Mr. Anderson, would be so proud.

When it comes to hydration, we need to put water into our bodies everyday. Most experts agree that we should drink at least 64 ounces a day. It's needed for our bodies to function correctly, and it must be replenished daily because we are always losing water. I had a doctor friend tell me once that most people walk around in a mild state of dehydration, and that not being hydrated can make anyone more susceptible to disease. Likewise, if we go days or weeks without reading the Bible we are much more susceptible to making unwise moral choices. Daily scripture reading is needed for us to live as we should day by day. If we choose to ignore this and become spiritually dehydrated we can't be the people God wants us to be.

As far as flushing out bad stuff from your body water is the best thing there is. It does a better job than Coke, juice, milk or beer because it's pure. Everyday we are subjected to images, sounds, and ideas that are not in line with God's teaching. Unless you move away to a monastery and completely isolate yourself from society there is no way to avoid this. That's another reason why daily reading the scripture is so important. Just like water does for our body the Bible can flush out all the impure junk from our lives. As you make daily Bible reading part of your life, the flushing out of impure ideas will naturally happen even when you aren't aware of it. Soon you will begin to recognize ideas and thoughts that are contrary to God's plan. The impurities of the world around you will become much clearer. That's all part of scripture flushing out the junk from your life.

So drink up! Make some time to read some scripture everyday. You will be healthier spiritually if you do. It wouldn't hurt to drink more water everyday as well. You'll probably feel better by doing that as well.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Such a good point Cliff! I love your real-life analogies. And, I am SO happy that Sherry is feeling better and passed the stone. I heard those kidney stones can be as painful as childbirth sometimes. Maybe I will drink more water now??

justin said...

glad to hear sherrys ok... i just know she walked passed me and said hey and two mins later she was being helped into the ladies room. i guess thats just another one of gods ways to show people to live life day by day cause ya never know what could happen.. but just to let ya know she was in our prayers and glad to know shes doing better

Karen said...

Well said.
Glad sweet Sherry is better and she told me that it was much worse than childbirth!!!
Love,
KK

Dana Purvis said...

Glad Sherry is feeling better - I have had kidney stones in the past and everyone makes fun of the HUGE insulated jug of ice water I carry everywhere with me now. But, I'm determined to not have that problem again!!

Love the message too, as always.

Also, I tried to download the message from Sunday (we were on nursery duty), but am unable to find it on the website (love the new format by the way).
Did something change that I will need a patch to software or something to download podcasts now?
Thanks, Dana

Cliff Marshall said...

Dana - the message from the previous Sunday is usually up on the website by Thursday. Glad you like the new site!