Water

I have three bottles of water in my car. They're all practically full; only a few gulps are missing from each. I tend to collect them in car after working, singing, or exercising, planning to drink them on a hot day.

I also have several juice drinks on my desk at work. I buy a new one for lunch everyday. I sip on them until they're about half-empty, and then set them aside as I leave for the day, not bothering to either refrigerate or pour them out. I'm just sure I'm saving them for a special occasion.

What am I doing with all these drinks? I really have no idea. But I'm definitely rethinking my habits. At Kynetic tonight we gave out water -- not just handing out cups to people close by, but lugging cases of water from a U-Haul truck into the Knox Area Rescue Ministries building. It's been extremely hot the past few weeks, and the mission has been running low on water as it tries to care of the homeless and needy in our downtown area. Xtreme Student Ministries decided to help, because we really want to live like Jesus instead of just talking about Him. Between our youth, college students, and team workers we gathered approximately 8,000 bottles of water in 35-pack cases onto a U-Haul truck.

This evening Kynetic unloaded that truck at KARM. We formed a line (or a line and a half) up the ramp from the truck to the side door of the building, and for 30 minutes passed case after case of water down the line to stack them inside. It was exhausting, and fun, and by the time the last case was put away I felt like I had sweated enough for a bottle of water or two myself. But it was a good feeling. Not because I had done anything special, but because it helped me realize some of the not-so-special things I needed to pay attention to -- like the water rolling around on the floorboards of my car.

I want to live like Jesus. I want to care about what He cares about. And for a few moments this evening, I really felt I was putting aside my own discomfort (and the streams of sweat running down my face) and doing what Matthew 6:31-33 says -- paying attention to the Kingdom of God, the kind of kingdom God wants on this earth. And paying attention for those moments highlighted some other moments when I haven't been paying attention, when I've been taking for granted they ways that God has added "all these things" to my life.

Basically, tonight was a reminder (at least to me) to pay more attention to the kingdom. Not in the sense that "starving children in Africa" can use the partially-empty bottles of juice and water I have as keepsakes in my life. Rather, it's a reminder of what the kingdom of God is really about -- the community and relationship of people, not the individual. It's about the breath of life; breathing in what God has given and breathing it back out onto those around me. It's not just about drinking in the water God's given us, but also about pouring it out (or hauling it out) for those of us who need the love of God as well.

-- Alicia