Small Group and Memories of Mexico

Small group tonight was great. We had a great discussion on doing stuff because you want to versus doing stuff because you know it's good for you. It was a great discussion of why we do this whole God thing. Why do we come to church and to small group? Why are we doing religion? Is it because we really want to, or is it because we think God will smite us if we don't?

The idea is that we should really desire that relationship with God, we should really want God and love God with everything instead of just being afraid of what he will do if we don't. As an illustration, Andy (the small group leader) used Psalm 42 as a picture of what it should look like for us to long for God. It should look like us thirsting for God just like a deer thirsts for water.

And here's my crazy tie in / awesome illustration for how we thirst for God. As Andy read from Psalm 42, I began to think about times when I really thirst for water versus times that I really need water. I began to think about my trip to Mexico when I was in high school. I went to Mexico with my home church (Traders Point Christian Church), and we worked on houses there.
We were told time and time again to drink water, and there were times where I was really thirsty. There were also times that I wasn't thirsty when I drank water anyways. This was because we don't always know when we need water, but we do need it. Just like God. We know that we need him and often thirst for him, but we don't always know that we are thirsty, so we should drink anyway. So the lesson for the day is to drink up, both out of deep love for God and out of the desire to stay spiritually healthy.