come and cool my tongue

Have you ever been really thirsty? I’m talking like really thirsty. There’s an old Bible song that says:

“Stick your finger in the water, come and cool my tongue.”

Have you ever been so thirsty you would beg someone to literally place a drop of water on your tongue?

I almost reach that point the other day…

I ran down to the beach… which was a small miracle for me – I’ve had asthma my entire life and have never been much of a runner. When I do run, it’s more of a run/walk. I truly felt the Lord telling me as a metaphor for all things in my life:

“With you this is impossible, but with me all things are possible.”

I took in the beauty of the ocean for a moment and then turned around to go back home, fully expecting to walk the entire way back. But somehow I ran.

Along the way, I was so desperately overcome by thirst that I stopped in the dry cleaner as I remembered them having water there. They were out. Great… Thankfully I have come to know the manager who miraculously appeared, and he was kind enough to go to the back and return with a large glass of ice cold water for me.

And let me tell you, this was the best, most refreshing glass of water I ever tasted. It quenched my thirst like no other. Just water. Plain water. I would have traded it for nothing in that moment.

I was thinking… Isn’t that what we can do for other in this life? Provide them with some refreshment when they are thirsty along their way?

There’s a quote I once heard that was so convicting I will never forget it:

“You may be the only Bible someone ever reads.”

We have a great opportunity – a responsibility and a privilege – to be a drop of water on someone’s tongue… to lead them to the ultimate source of water who will quench the thirst of their soul. There is something so beautiful – and scary – about that.

The full lyrics to that song I was reminded of are this:

“Stick your finger in the water, come and cool my tongue, cause I’m tormented by the flame.”

The unfortunate fact is that this world is tormented by the flame – of Satan, of evil, of sin. No one is immune to it.

As followers of Christ, we know that He is the ultimate source of water – of power to help us not be overcome by the flame. He is the ultimate source of refreshment for our souls. And He has given us the Bible as a source of His refreshment, of guidance, of hope. He tells us:

“But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” – John 4:14

We know this. But there are people in our lives, people we pass every day, who do not. And whether or not they know it, they are thirsty. They are dying for a drop of water – a drop of hope.

What if we are the only Bible they ever read? If someone never opened a Bible and looked only at our lives as a measure of Christianity, would they want to know Jesus?