Spirit Water

Servus!

This week has been...decent.  By that, I mean filled with the usual.  We are working in Kaiserslautern some more for the summer...some more for the summer...summer for the some more...summer for the summer...

That was weird.  Sorry.

Some heartbreaking things have happened, although they haven't hit their full stride.  One of our super-promising investigators, Herr Seidl, ended up still not being able to come to church.  When we tried to gain contact with him by telephone, he hung up on us.  We are going try and visit him directly to see what has been up with him, but I am hoping that his heart will be softened again.  He is probably one of the people I've most liked to visit on my mission so far, because he was enjoying each lesson so well and making progress.  Hope is not lost for him, though.  He has a big heart and is a great guy and I'm sure he will open back up.

In the past week, distributed among exchanges and last preparation day, we have gone to Saarbrücken, Rhein-pfalz, and Mannheim.  Good cities with lots of cool people and missionaries!  The work continues to move forward.  For some reason, it has been oddly difficult to get new investigators for the past little while, and so that will change.  Actually, it has already begun to change because we have been finding some cool people this week!

I am preparing for a training that I will be giving at zone conference this coming Monday.  As part of my study for it, which is focused on finding people to teach, I was lead to the story in the fourth chapter of John.  During this, Jesus speaks with a woman from Samaria at a well outside a local city of that country.  In the conversation that ensues, Christ asks the woman for some water to drink.  After being questioned by the woman for His reasoning in dealing with a Samaritan woman, whom the Jews should have despised, Christ responds by asserting: 

"If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." (verse 10).  

Later in the chapter, Christ speaks with His disciples, and responds to their request for Him to eat, saying: 

"I have meat to eat that ye know not of...[which] is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work [...] Say not ye, 'There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?'  Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." (verses 32, 34-35)

I found the 'theme' of food and sustenance in this chapter to be both powerful and influential in determining the role of Christ and His servants.  It was clear in both scenarios that Jesus's main focus was not resting upon literal or physical food or water, but rather a different, more spiritual conception.  At the same time, at the moment that these people heard His statements, they seemed to overlook their true meaning, thinking solely of the physical.  Though the Samaritan woman and perhaps the disciples, too, had access to these physical needs, they were speaking to the one Person who could provide for something spiritually much greater, and who could not-to-mention go without food or water.  Truly, the water that Christ offered and the meat which He had would prove to be of much greater worth in the eternities than any physical meal or feast.

Don't worry, now.  I am not about to announce that I will stop eating or drinking, because as mortals we do need to provide for those needs.  However, what I find especially important is that we recognize the importance and seek after the living water which has been offered to us, especially if we are to want to help others do the same.  There is a famine in which many live.  It is not a "famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:12).  Thank goodness, the Lord has restored His gospel and has provided millions with the chance to receive it, but many continue to thirst--even if they do not know it.  We need to find them, and I think a vital principle about finding those people who are ready can be learned by observing the Lord's statement in John 4:35, cited and italicized above.  We need to realize that there are people searching and wanting this water now.  We need to find them.  They are on the streets, in the homes, in the busses, and just about everywhere else.  This is why we need to talk to everyone we can.  Though they may not all immediately recognize that, those who do, and we, too, will find the truthfulness in the Lord's statement:  "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (verse 14). 

This week, we are going on a hike for preparation day.  I am wearing my Lederhosen and nobody can stop me.

Servus!

Elder Wallentine™