Driving Them to Drink?

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." Unfortunately there's a deep truth in there, or it wouldn't be a cliche. I say unfortunate because it's our job (as Christians) to be the living advertisement for the Water that Christ described himself as: the kind that you drink and never thirst again. In a very real sense, it's our job to provoke thirst. It's our job to show the chilled condensation on the glass, to be the delicate clink of ice, to be the frozen-instant crystal splash. When I watch the world from the vantage point of my couch, or pew, or cushy-supportive bucket seat, I kind of think we're not doing such a great job.

Let's stretch the marketing metaphor a little (I'm far from the only one doing so, luckily). We have to believe in our product. The whole "I'm not just the president, I'm also a member" thing. If Christ-followers are shaky on their beliefs, then it translates tentatively. I'm not suggesting that we all turn into streetside evangelists. (But if that's how you feel led...) We need to understand how perceptions have been propagated and reinforced over the decades, and make sure that we're not bailing into the same crevasses. I'm saying that we need humility in the presentation, but absolute confidence in the material. I am a vessel for truth, not the truth itself, and the cleaner and clearer I am, the better the truth can be seen.

We can't make people drink. But I wonder if we can't do a better job of making people want to drink.