Thirsty?

Sometimes I get really thirsty for a Diet Coke. I get so thirsty I can almost taste it, cool and refreshing, passing over my tongue. I can imagine the crisp feeling of swallowing it.

Then, lately, I’ve also had another sensation when I get thirsty for a Diet Coke. I have the sensation that it does not quench my thirst. So, when I get the thirst, and go by a big ol’ Diet Coke and start gulping it down, the taste is there, the feeling is there. And when it is done, I am more thirsty than when I started.

Since I have noticed this discrepancy in anticipated thirst quenched and actual thirst quenched, I have cut way back on my Diet Coke. I still get the feeling sometimes, but now, when I am thirsty, I drink water.

As I got to thinking about how Diet Coke does not really satisfy, I realized that there are many things in our life that are that way. We all have habits, routines, things we enjoy, that really do not satisfy us. Sometimes there is some instantaneous pleasure or satisfaction, but in the long term these things, like Diet Coke, leave us less satisfied than when we started.

The writer of Hebrews points out that there is pleasure in sin for a short time. I am not saying that drinking Diet Coke is a sin, but what pleasure there is in drinking it is short lived.

On the other hand, God offers us living water through Jesus. What God has to offer not only satisfies our thirsts from day to day, but forever.