‘Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.‘ Ezekiel 47:8-10

I remember my first time. After a full day of hiking in the mountains, the crystal-clear stream of water flowing downhill beckoned my hot, tired feet. It looked so inviting—so refreshing.

I quickly discovered that appearances can be painfully deceptive. This water was so cold it made my bones hurt.  But after the initial shock—and the numbing of my feet—I found myself refreshed. Something about standing in the icy current was restorative. My weariness washed away, and I was filled with new energy.

Pain will do that to you, I guess.

I remember another body of water that had the opposite effect. We were in Palm Desert, California where about the only thing we could think to do to stay cool was climb into the swimming pool. Again, I was reminded that appearances aren’t always reality. This water wasn’t refreshing or restorative. In fact, it was as tepid as bathwater. Not hot enough to relax us like a hot tub might have. Just warm enough to bring out the germaphobe in me as I looked at all the other people sitting in what felt like bathwater with me. 

And yes, maybe my reaction was purely psychological and irrational—cue the germaphobe. But nonetheless, I did not enjoy my time in that water. There was no physical pain like the frigid water of the flowing mountain stream gave me. And there was also no restoration.

Flowing or Still?

A few weeks ago, I spent time beside a mountain stream, watching rainbow trout swimming in the pristine water. And God reminded me that my life can be like the flowing stream or the still water. If I choose to stay still, I can become like stagnant water that offers no life. 

Or, like a mountain stream, I can embrace the journey. The water from high up on the mountain goes where gravity and the stream bed takes it.

The problem is my human nature seeks to remain in the familiar or cling to the past. If I can’t see where I’m, then I hesitate to go.

But when we become followers of Christ, we become certain of our destination, even when we don’t know what the path between us and it looks like. 

Life-giving water does not flow backwards. It keeps moving. And in a mystery only God could imagine, the farther life-giving water moves along its course, the closer it gets to its Source.

In an earthly world that changes faster than we can comfortably navigate, we may be resistant to letting go. Instead, we try to hold on to the old way, the things we known, the things that make us feel safe.

Stagnant or Joyous?

But God did not give us a life meant to be captured in a static pool. Such a life will stagnate, eventually killing the joy promised to us.

I confess all of this because I wrestle with it more than I should. Like Lot’s wife, I am tempted to look back with longing to the way things used to be—the good ol’ days. I have a nostalgic heart and the rose-colored glasses that go with it.

But time, like water, just doesn’t flow backwards. Those days we enjoyed aren’t coming back. 

Praise God we don’t have to waste away our days mourning their loss. We can choose to be like Paul when he said, “ . . . forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

To keep moving is to be cleansed from our impurities. Like that pure mountain stream, we become an inviting, life-giving source of refreshment to others. 

As the world dangles on the unstable threads of war, illness, and natural disaster, the streams of living water continue to flow steadily on to their source. 

And so must we.

As Jesus tells us in John 7:38, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

May we choose to never grow stagnant, but with joy and unwavering hope continue moving closer to our Source so that from our lives the rivers of living water continue to flow.