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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

DEHYDRATION

I take my dogs on walks often. Living in the mountains provides trails and jaunts thru unparralled beauty. But Cody and Riley don't see the beauty. They feel the freedom to run and explore; to sniff to their noses content. To try and figure out what kind of animal has been on this particular trail. To go in and out of bushes and water.
Cody is a yellow lab with the personality of "let me enjoy life to the fullest". She is exuberant and can't contain her excitement when I mention the work "walk". Cody literally jumps up to six feet high trying to get me to go faster to our gate. Faster to her freedom.
Riley, my sweet black lab tries to calm the younger Cody down- tackling her as she tries to what seems to Riley-attacking me.
I love our walks. The dogs love to roam and run to and fro all over the place. I am sure that Cody runs 2-3 times more than I walk.
When we get home, both dogs race to the water bowl. Completely dehydrated from the running and roaming that had ensued. I usually have to replace the water bowl immediately as they drink and try to hydrate their cute little lab bodies.



Have you ever been dehydrated? when you are so thirsty that all you want to do is drink glass after glass of water. To quench that extreme thirst you are experiencing.
And our bodies let us know when we don't get enough water.
Our friend Will found out what it was like to be dehydrated this morning.
Will is an athlete. He plays college soccer and is what i consider to be in excellent shape.
But will didn't know how thirsty his thin framed body was today. He told his friends at coffee that he felt a bit weak or faint or maybe his blood sugar was low. He went to get something to eat and then while talking to his friends, turned his head, fell off his chair and then began seizing. Will was rushed to the hospital and after a few hours of tests that included labs, EEG's and a CT scan of his brain, it was determined that he was severely dehydrated.
I mean we are talking severely dehydrated. 2 liters of IV fluids later, they discharged him home to get rest.
Why did Will not know he was so dehydrated? Did he miss the signals? His body certainly didn't.
WE NEED WATER to survive. 80% of our body is water, so YES, we do need to drink 6-8 glasses of water everyday to keep us hydrated.
I for one, don't want to scare my friends with a seizure, because I didn't know I wasn't drinking enough to keep my body flowing fluidly.
And then as I drove home from the hospital and was thinking about dehydration, I wondered how easy it is for us to be spiritually dehydrated and depleted.
When we don't get enough of our intake of GOD. When we let the busyness of life keep us from being replenished spiritually. And then how easy it becomes for God's enemy to come and tempt us with the lies he always does. And then we start believing them. And life begins to unravel, and we wonder what has gone wrong.
WE desperately need to hear from God. Most of us don't hear the voice of God audibly. But God does speak to us-in His Word. And we need to hear from Him each day. To get His perspective. To receive His guidance. To know His peace. To see how faithful and loving He is to us.

Psalm 42:1-2 says:
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

For a deer to pant for water, it has been running and is probably dehydrated.
That's how we are to be : panting after God. Panting to get hydrated. Panting to stay hydrated. So that we can escape dehydration and not let satan throw us into spiritual seizures.
Drink your fill of the Word of God. Allow your spirit to hear His. Allow God to fill you up with every type of food and fluid you need to survive.
Your life literally depends on it.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks Mom. it's easy to forget how thirsty we really are.

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  2. Thanks for this, Missy. It was wonderful to finally meet you, and your presence at the hospital touched us all deeply.

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