The Only Qualification Needed

Waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:6

Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. Revelation 22:17

REFLECTION:
I still remember the stress of figuring out "prerequisites" in college. Those are the classes that would be needed before you could take another class. So, for example, a prerequisite for Spanish 102 was Spanish 101. Some of them were straightforward like that, but others were more complicated, which made the process of signing up for classes and creating a schedule more complicated as well.

We have made Christianity more complicated, too. While few of us would actually say it out loud, most of us seem to operate with the basic assumption that you have to do SOMETHING to be worthy of God's love and grace. You have to go to church; you have to pray often; you have to be really sorry before you can be forgiven; whatever it is in our minds, we seem to think that we have to fit a certain picture of what a "good person" is.

I hear this when I ask kids what being a Christian means - they say, "being a good person."
I hear this in final moments, when people pray with me because they are nearing the end and are afraid they have not been a good enough person. No matter how much preachers like me try to deconstruct this, it seems ingrained in us...there must be SOME prerequisite we have to check off before being worthy of love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

And I'm here to say...there is. There is one prerequisite. There is one qualification. There is one requirement we have to satisfy before being washed in grace.

We have to be dry.

Yep, you heard it. That's it. In order to have streams break forth in our hearts, we have to resemble a desert.

It might sound like a strange way to say it, but it is actually good news, because we have this requirement checked off already, whether we know it or not.

Any time we try to exist on our resources alone, we are fooling ourselves.
The streams of our strength dry up when the demand is too high.
And it should be no surprise...this is how streams work in nature as well; they can't last forever unless they are being fed from somewhere else.

So, pause and re-read the two simple passages again.
Consider this thought; the areas of your life that feel strong and centered...those are the places the river is running high...and praise God that he keeps bringing the rain to fill them.
On the other hand, the places where you feel dried up and lost...the places where you know your strength alone won't cut it...take heart, because the streams are coming...and you've already checked off the only requirement...because you know you need to be watered.

Today, hear the simple word of promise...
The only qualification for streams of mercy breaking forth...is being dry.
The only qualification for taking a drink from the water of life...is being thirsty.

Let everyone who is thirsty...come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
Theses are some of the final words of the Bible...may they be the first words of our day today.

PRAYER:
God, you offer living waters to all who thirst. As you bring the desert to life, so you bring us to true life, and we blossom and grow in ways unexpected. May we reflect your love and glory, Amen.