This Is Water
In the book of Jonah the author alludes to two distinct Psalms: Psalm 18, and Psalm 42. He prays: For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your waves and Your billows passed over me. (Jonah 2:3) Psalm 42:7 states:[Roaring] deep calls to [roaring] deep at the thunder of Your waterspouts; all Your breakers and Your rolling waves have gone over me. What’s ironic about Jonah’s usage of this psalm is Psalm 42:1-2 states: As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (NKJV) Why is that ironic? Jonah is surrounded by water but thirsts for God.
In 2005, David Foster Wallace addressed the graduating class at Kenyon College with a speech that became a best selling book. His commencement speech titled,“This Is Water” began with the following parable: There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What is water?”
How could the reality, and conscious awareness of an encounter with God in Jonah’s past, exceed the realities of the horror of being swallowed by a great fish, sinking to the depths of the ocean, and facing certain death? How do you become so conscious of God that you compare Him to that which could kill you? You pray that you become conscious of your unconsciousness. Have you ever been fishing and observed how the fish “pants,” or “thirsts” for water? Water is the air it breathes. Have you ever been trapped under water, your mind screaming to breathe air?
David Foster Wallace nearing the end of his commencement speech surmised: The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over: This is water. This is water.
When I was a child there were two places I could count on experiencing God: lying down on the floor of the woods in the leaves, and sitting on a sand dune watching the ocean waves crash to the shore. What was the core ingredient? Peace, and an awareness that I was not alone. Even though I had not been born-again spiritually I knew there was more to life than the air I breathed. He was in the air, and in the water. In fact, HE IS. All that is required is a child-like anticipation. You just have to be still enough to know it. Aware of the “capital-T Truth.” The fish in David Foster Wallace’s parable had lost the wonder of being suspended in a substance they were never conscious of. You and I are suspended in the Presence of the God Who suspends the universe in His Hand. We are the fish. Don’t be suspended by the water but be suspended by the Presence of God. Want His Reality like a fish panting for water, or a drowning human screaming for air.
During this season of Elul very few of the people swimming around you have taken the time to be still and listen. How many times have you missed your time with God? How many times have you missed walking with Him through your garden and His? Jonah was surrounded by water but it was salty, undrinkable water. Is the missing ingredient in your quest for thirsting for more of God more salt in life?
