Muddy Puddles

The Eternal is my shepherd, He cares for me always. He provides me rest in rich, green fields beside streams of refreshing water.

(Psalm 23:1-2, The VOICE)

A fellow believer, who authored a journaling study on Psalm 23, sent me something this week that really settled in my soul. Reminded me that I have an option about “where I drink.” Here’s what she said:

“God reminded me of something I discovered about sheep. Sheep who get thirsty will stop to drink from a filthy puddle laced with bad bacteria that can harm them… while there is water flowing gently in a clear brook 10 more feet in front of them that would more than satisfy them and refresh them. God was showing me through this that when I got cast down this week… when I didn’t get what I wanted…when things didn’t go my way…when I didn’t like this world very much… I stopped at the puddle with bad bacteria in it. I spent a day and half grumbling and complaining and lapping up that bad water.”

The way the world thinks, believes and does is often our muddy puddle. When my thinking matches the world’s, it is MY muddy puddle. The wonderful, refreshing brook is the water our Shepherd gives: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38) What we have to remember is we have a choice where to drink. We have options. We are to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Romans 12:2) not conformed to this world. Not thinking with my flesh, like this world. But choosing to go to the streams of living water the Good Shepherd provides.

We are surrounded by bad water. Muddy puddles everywhere. But just a step further is the living water. We choose how we think. We choose what we do. It all begins in the heart, and the heart is refreshed not by muddy puddles, but by the transforming living water. Where will we drink today?

“Woe is me” is the muddy puddle. Grumbling and complaining is the muddy puddle. But we don’t even have to go 10 feet for that life giving refreshing living water! No wonder God calls us “sheep.” Sheep are notoriously less intelligent than His other creatures. They need a shepherd – and so do we. Perhaps He made them just that way for this purpose… Read and pray Psalm 23 again.