One of my favorite things (and there are many) about living in Western Oregon is our proximity to the Oregon Coast. I find it to be breathtakingly beautiful at pretty much any time of the year.
Almost every time we go to the coast, my wife and I end up using the drive home for some type of deep, philosophical conversation regarding life and God. That's not all that unusual for us in general, but it's almost guaranteed to happen whenever we visit the coast. There's just something about spending time in those beautiful and extreme elements that brings us back to the core of who we are and what really matters.
On one such trip a couple months ago, our conversation was all about water.
Now, as a worship leader, I'm well aware of the fact that there are a lot of church songs about water. To such a degree, that the subject has drawn plenty of jabs online from time to time. I've laughed right along with everyone else, but the truth is, there's good reason for it. There are plenty of instances in Scripture where God, and specifically the Holy Spirit, are referred to in a way that is more or less parallel to water. Kind of like spiritual water if you will, and many times in a very direct, specific way. (I take this to be a given, but it's not the point I'm trying to make here. If you would like further clarification on this point, please contact me and I would be happy to go deeper into it with you.)
The thing that I was mulling over on this particular day, was the fact that physical water is not one dimensional in its action. That led me to surmise that spiritual water probably isn't either.
Probably the first thing we equate with water is the fact that it's refreshing. It's the opposite of dry. Rocks that are in the water aren't referred to as dry. You can throw a dry rock into the water and it instantly becomes a wet rock.
The second thing I realized about water is the fact that it cleanses things. It's been the go-to for hand washing for a little while now, and going back to the rock thing, you don't find a lot of dirty rocks in the water, or at least not rocks that have spent a lot of time in the water. (Sometimes you do find dirty rocks that have been in the water a long time, but that's usually because the water itself is dirty.)
The third thing, and the thing that grabbed my attention on this particular day, is the fact that water actually shapes things. At the beach, as well as in streams, rivers, and lakes, you find rocks that have not only been wetted and cleansed by the water, but they've actually been shaped by repeated contact with it.
When we come to God we find refreshment; when we stick around for awhile, we experience His cleansing in our lives and habits; but when we learn to stay immersed in His presence, that's when the shaping starts to happen. It takes time, but I believe it's more than worth it.
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