“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (42:1-2)
As a high school junior, I am surrounded by a plethora of pressures, of people and places that demand the panting of my soul. Teachers, fellow students, coaches, parents, and friends all amass my attention. In the classroom, I thirst for success, in extracurricular activities, I thirst for recognition, in social settings I thirst for belonging. Promises of fulfillment spring from these wells, yet each one, though mouth watering, leaves my soul parched. Still, when all that is within me feels dry, I often seek satisfaction in the temporary, the earthly, rather than in the everlasting, the living water that I have been promised. But, when I acknowledge Him, when I press on to know Him, this living water, as surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to me like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth (Hosea 6:3).
I have found a love that never runs dry, a wellspring of the joy of living, an ocean depth of happy rest: Jesus. Yes, I have tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves: Jesus. This love, this Jesus, quenches my soul, fulfills my desires, satisfies my needs. If His grace is an ocean, I am surely sinking. Yes, from the depths of His love for me, He has richly provided. How can it be, that after having met the culmination of contentment, I continue to pursue another provider? How can it be, that knowing Christ alone can satisfy, I expect things of this world to know and to meet the desires of my heart?
My soul thirsts for things that this world cannot provide. I am longing for the living God. Surely, when I drink of the water the Lord provides, I will never thirst. Indeed, the water He gives me will become in me a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14). I ask that I may go and meet with Him, that I may be filled.
Filled to be emptied 