Pure water...

Today I prompted a "Water Intake Challenge," encouraging others to shoot for 64 oz or MORE of water today. It's always exciting when you know there are others out there striving for a similar goal.

Something about today's challenge really caught my attention though. There were several willing and excited parties to partake in this H20 extravaganza, however, many wanted to question the "rules."

"Can you count V8 fission as water?"
"Does it only have to be water?"
"Does Crystal light count?"
"What about tea?"

I remember hearing those exact same questions the day the certified nutritionist at the gym talked about water consumption in our free nutrition class. More than any other topic, questions began flooding the room when he mentioned drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day..."What about flavored water, what about kool-aid, what about sugar free tea, what about lemonade, what about coffee, what about blah blah blah..."

EVERYONE wanted to know a way around drinking just fresh.pure.plain WATER.

Some benefits of WATER:

• Keeps your body hydrated
• Flushes toxins from our bodies
• Helps fight bad breathe
• Helps curb appetite
• Helps regulate body temperature
• Helps transport nutrients and oxygens to cells
• Boosts metabolism - HUGE for those of us trying to lose weight!!!

So why do we try to taint this healthy, odorless, tasteless, much NEEDED refreshment? Doesn't it do it's job alone of satisfying? Why does it have to be water + something else? Doesn't that change the very properties of water? Why alter something that is already perfect in it's natural state?

I won't even go into talking about the children in 3rd world countries who would give their last penny for some fresh.pure.plain drinking WATER.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm totally guilty of this attitude myself -- go to my house right now and there are 3 different boxes of flavored mixes to "spike" my water. I've neglected to appreciate it and accept it simply "as it is."

I think all-to-often in life we try to "add something else" to what is already good.

Ya know, all of this deep thought got me and my mind that lives in the world of analogies thinking. There is a story in the Bible about a woman at a well fetching water. Jesus approaches her and tells her that He will give LIVING water that causes people to NEVER thirst again! He says this water will be INSIDE of them. Pretty cool huh?

How many of us find ourselves looking back to Jesus and saying, "I want that living water + something else though?" We try and take that fresh.pure.plain LIVING water and add a little "flavor," a little "pizazz," a little "excitment," to the incredible (much NEEDED) refreshment Jesus has come to offer us. How often does it seem like people want JESUS + sin? GOD + compromise? PURITY + filth? HEAVEN + the world and all it has to offer?

Some benefits of LIVING water:

• Replenishes your SOUL
• Helps reject sin and temptation
• Helps transport good news to the body
• Helps HEAL you
• Gives you HOPE for your future (namely eternal)
• BOOSTS faith

Why do we like to taint what has already been made good?

I encourage each of YOU to start filling your bodies with fresh.pure.plain WATER for your physical health AND to seek the fresh.pure.plain living water that will satisfy your soul.

Verse of the Day:

John 4:13-14 (NKJV)

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”