Sometimes, O God, my thirst for you
is pushed aside, ignored,
or simply quenched by something other—
something more reasonable,
something more popular—than you.
But you never go away,
never stop,
never leave the depths of me.
Like an underground spring,
you are fresh and free,
breaking through.
Help me prepare a place for you in the caverns of my soul.
Amen.
Pamela Hawkins in The Awkward Season: Prayers for Lent (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2009) 36, 38.
What’s bubbling up in the “caverns of your soul” this Lent? I pray it is the living water of Jesus Christ that is the only thing that can satisfy, the only refreshment that causes a person to never thirst again (cf. John 4:14). What happens to those who partake? Hawkins suggests we enjoy and share it freely, and to that end, she invites each of us to pray this prayer:
O Christ, who is Living Water,
who is deep calling to deep.
You call us to carry
hope to the hopeless,
love to the lost,
and water to the thirsty.
Fill me with your love
to overflowing
that I may have a part in you
and freely give it away.
Amen.