The Waterpik

Are you one of those people that tends to put off your bi-annual teeth cleaning? I am.

I dislike scheduling things several months in advance so I tend to avoid making the commitment. After ignoring several reminders to make an appointment, I finally called the dentist and asked if I could be placed in a cancelation slot or on a wait list. They said the next day at noon was available. Oh geez, that was quick. Not exactly what I had in mind. After all, I just had popcorn a few days prior. I had been occasionally flossing but not as much as they probably recommend. My mental excuses were mounting up but I said yes anyway. Then I remembered that my husband had one of those waterpik’s and figured I should give that a go. I had never used one but how hard can it be?

I went into the bathroom and I pulled out the sprayer handle and flipped a button on it. Nothing happened. As I am holding the sprayer, I looked over at the actual machine with the water tank and saw what looked like the “on” button. I press that button and in slow motion I see the sprayer in my peripheral vision starting to gush water and it was coming right for me. It proceeded to gush all over my face and started soaking my shirt. It’s a good thing that I have cat like reflexes, so that I could quickly turn the wand another direction. Unfortunately, I turned it away from me right onto the bathroom mirror. Shoot My next best option was to shove the thing in my mouth, which gave me another face lashing on the way in. Once it was in my mouth, I nearly drowned with water coming in faster than I could get it out. I finally turned it off to regroup, which in hindsight should have been my first response. Geez! Maybe this was a little more complicated than it seemed. I chuckled to myself that maybe I should have looked at the directions first... Nah!

Sometimes my abiding journey resembles a waterpik. I want the living water that Jesus offers but sometimes it floods the senses, sometimes it comes at me from a direction that I am not expecting, and there are also times I am trying to take in too much at one time. The feeling of trying to “drink from a firehose” comes to mind. When these feeling come up, I need to stop to really discern the voice of God and the specific Word he has just for me. It is easy to get bombarded with information these days, to overthink things, and forget to go back to the source.

Do you every have difficulty hearing His voice over all the noise?

Can you name the burdens that need to be laid down at Jesus feet right now?

Can you pinpoint an area of your life that needs particular focus?

To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. John 10:3-4