Deep Waters

Have you ever heard the saying, "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink?"
I happened to have watched a televangelist the other day. I won't name names, mainly because I don't remember it, but also because I'd never want to offend a little one who may find nourishment from the milk of the word that's said from these people.
However, I was watching this person 'minister' and my heart was grieved. Sincerely grieved....not in a fault-finding, judgemental way, but a sincere, heartfelt sorrow. To think that this person is on TV presenting their ministry as a well-spring of living water....and yet when you really watch and listen and judge their spirit- you find a dried up well. This person is on TV because they've found a local niche on a cheap station, late at night where they can sell their books, crosses and god-forbid...the holy water colon cleansers that they've marketed in the name of God to old ladies with insomnia....and clogged colons.
I'm pretty sure that at that moment I felt the same stirring that Jesus must have felt when he turned over tables.

I heard someone tell the story of visiting an orphanage in Uguanda to see their sponsored child. He toured the orphanage and played games outside with all the children until dinner time. The dinner bell rang. They lined up at a pump and washed their hands in hot, brown water. He followed the chidlren inside and sat down at the table with all the children. When he saw the cup he was expected to drink from he was sickened. He said he was served a dirty glass, full of the same hot, dirty water they had washed up in. He looked up at the little children seated around the table- and they drank willingly and greedily- without thought.
It was all they knew. It's the only water they ever had.
Some of our American churches have become that way. They drink greedily from the half dripping, luke-warm, rusty pumps behind their pulpit. The young Christian has a sincere desire to grow in the Lord, drinking deep because they don't know anything different.
I was speaking to a friend about their new youth group at her church....the new youth leader was newly imported from a big city church, with all kinds of new plans,game nights, music concerts to attend and even christened the youth group with a new trendy name and mass produced cool T-shirts. She used the term "innovative outreach".
But I HAD to ask it......Are we REALLY giving our youth anything PROFITABLE (other than a cool t-shirt) when all we do is get them together for Wii Sports tournaments on the churches big screen??? For heaven sakes, the Boy Scouts offer better than that! At least they can read a compass! Is this what our youth ministries have turned into?? Are we equipping them for the ministry? Are we imparting to our youth a sincerity to grow in the grace and knowledge of God? Why aren't our kids WORKING in the ministry? Why aren't our kids BURNING with a desire to hit the streets with tracts and Bible books? Why are they blending so well with the WORLD? Why does a youth prayer meeting sound so far in left field? Many Youth groups have turned into a collective "half in-half out" haven of luke-warm activities to ease parents minds, and give the kids an outlet for social interaction with a set of "church approved friends". We need to invest into our children's spiritual future. Don't just assume that because their playing games with kids in the same church that you attend that thier getting spirtually fed. Our youth are wandering far out to sea....far from the shore....there's water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

Sometimes, I feel like that man did sitting at the long dinner table in Uganda. Looking at the fellow diners with tears in his eyes. He said that at that moment- with all his heart, with all of his soul more than anything in the world he wanted to put in a fresh, deeeeep well that would pump cold, cold water into the hands of those children.