Heat Exhaustion

Just recently I experienced what I believe to be heat exhaustion. Now admittedly, this is a self diagnosis. I am stubborn when it comes to going to the doctor and such. I watch myself pretty well and eat pretty well. I have become very conscious of my sugar intake and white flour and such. I have cut way down on eating candy and cookies and sweets. I am, what I would say, in pretty good shape. My one vice, if it is a vice, would be coffee and I have cut down how much I drink over the years but still drink about five cups a day. I love a good cup of coffee and I am quicker to drink coffee than water.

My problem all started with digging a hole in the back yard for a post. The place I chose turned out to be extremely rocky but I was working in evening and though it was hot the sun was down. I sipped at my coffee as I worked. When I went into the house my wife had come home and asked if I had listened to the phone. “It’s buzzing.” The last time the phone was buzzing was when I cut into the line when doing some work in the back yard. So the next morning I went out to see what I had done because the night before the hole was filled with water. I could not see any line so I dug out the sides. Still nothing and by now it was getting hot. We concluded that it must be the repair from last year gone bad. The next morning I began to dig where I thought the problem was and ended up digging a trench about two feet deep and about twenty feet long. I never found the line. We decided to call the phone company and it turned out to be a “carbon” (a fuse) in the box. Yikeballs! All that work and now I had to fill up the trench. As it happened I did it in the later part of Friday morning, went to work and then in evening at about five o’clock I went to help pack my daughter and son-in-law’s possessions into the back of a rented truck so they could leave for Oregon the next morning. Because I have a knack for packing, another fellow and I stayed in the back of the truck and the boxes were slid over to us to pack. We did this for several hours. This was all in a week when the temperatures were in the 100’s by eight in the morning and reached 120 by two in the afternoon and didn’t cool off to the 90’s until well after dark.

My problem was not so much the work but that I did not drink enough water. I sipped my coffee in the morning when I had been digging and filling the trench and had a glass or two of water but not much. When I was in the back of the truck I drank one or two twelve ounce bottles of water but did not think much about it. At about eight that evening most all the packing was done and I went home, had something to eat and went to dinner. The next morning I woke and read my bible and then worked on the computer for a while. About an hour after I woke up I began to shiver so I went to get a shirt on but by the time I got to the room I crawled under the covers and shivered uncontrollably until I fell asleep. I got up later feeling tire but I had a memorial service to go to and I had to finish my sermon for in the morning. As soon as I finished my work I went home and was soon in bed. The next morning, Sunday, I went to church, determined to preach and attend the staff meeting. I should have just let my assistant take the service because I was too sick. The staff shooed me out and I went home to sleep, off and on, for the next thirty hours. I went to work on Tuesday but had to go home by early afternoon. I had eaten very little because I had no appetite. I was miserable and even at this writing I still do not feel the way I should. So what is the point?

Just these, relating it spiritually, many Christians suffer from spiritual heat exhaustion. They are in the heat of battle or the heat of service (or both) and don’t drink enough Living Water to keep their bodies spiritually hydrated. They drink in other things like books and music and devotionals but they never spend time at the Well of Living Water and drink deeply or often, just glassfuls here and there. They have a glassful in the morning but if they miss they think they will be all right. They will just have one tomorrow morning but then tomorrow morning comes and they miss again. They might have a good long drink on Wednesday or Sunday morning but they get to the place where they are not drinking the water and just as water is what our physical bodies need to survive, flush toxins, replenish and refresh so our spiritual lives need the water of the Word and to drink deeply of the Living Water. They don’t allow the Holy Spirit to poor the Living Water into them at times of private prayer and fellowship.

So now we have little water in our “spiritual” systems and then we get into a heated spiritual warfare we don’t expect and our strength fails. We serve in our own strength for long times and we become exhausted. We find ourselves, shivering uncontrollably, huddled in a corner trying to figure out what is wrong with us. We have lost our strength, our appetite and our desire to do anything but sleep. We even isolate ourselves because we have no interest in fellowship. This happens all because we neglect regular, deep drinking of the Water of the Word. We have sweat it out and poured it out in tears. There is nothing there because we have not put it back

We need to visit the Well every day without fail. We need to drink deep and often. We cannot be satisfied with just the other spiritual “beverages.” They are fine, and like coffee have a place and a time but we cannot find our strength in that just like we cannot expect to have spiritual strength from just listening to music or reading devotionals, we must read the word. We also must spend time with Jesus and ask Him for the water that He gives.
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." John 4:10 (NKJV)
Let it hydrate your heart and replenish your spirit so that even in the unexpected times you will be able to enter into the heat of battle or the heat of service and not fail. But the way, it must be remembered that you cannot miss the drinking of Living Water while you battle or while you serve or you will find yourself exhausted. The day to day prepares you but when the battle or the service increases so must your intake of Living Water

John 7:37-39 (NKJV) On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." 39But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Rev. 22:17 (NKJV)
And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires let him take the water of life freely.