These are the famous words of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, and boy, was it an amazing scene. We watched her melt down to nothing just because of a little water. But think about it: you want to put a little gloom on a great outdoor party? Let it rain. A little water can dampen our spirits in a heartbeat and cause something that is meant for fun to turn out bad. I have seen small drops of water on a slick concrete-finished sidewalk trip up sure-footed people and throw them to the ground.
I was on a construction site working as a laborer years ago and I watched as twenty workers got ready to go make money so we could have food on our tables. They were suddenly all paralyzed by four drops of rain and the hint of thunder showers. Believe it or not, they called it a day. No pay, no progress…because of a few drops of water.
Will water melt you? No! The water in each of these cases had different effects for different people. For the construction workers looking for a reason to take a day off, water was an excuse. For those who slipped on it and fell to the ground, it was a painful slide. For those who couldn’t have their party outside, it was discouraging. But for the Wicked Witch, it meant DEATH.
In a time when we can kind of coast through life and bump from problem to problem, we can get lulled into accepting more and more of a worldly point of view about our faith. Thoughts like, “Maybe the Bible didn’t really mean for me to do this or that”, or “I’m a little unclear about how God is talking to me in this scripture.” So we look at our faith like how these different stories present how water affects them. We look at the prospects of the future weather and the situations in the world really start to rain on our party and it causes us to be negative and dismal. Maybe we let a few things start to stray in our life and before long, we “slip up” on something we never should’ve slipped on. Or maybe we just find more and more reasons for not serving the Lord and the first sign of rain, we call it a day. These are all seemingly harmless things that can creep into our lives but have the potential to be deadly.
1 John 2:15-17 gives us a reminder of what can happen when we quit tapping into the “living water” and start drinking from the stream the Bible calls The World. DEATH. Scripture says, “don’t love the world.” “It will pass away.” It also says, “the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Don’t ever get so slack and complacent in your faith that you say, “I’m melting!” Live in victory and every day will be a day of LIFE ABUNDANT.
The Pilgrimage continues…. David Warren
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