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Holt, likewise, recognizes a more subtle aspect of our spiritual thirst. We do not always know what we truly need and long for. Here, he connects with the above theme of dehydration. A dehydrated person can assume, for example, the bodily weakness is due to needing some rest or something to eat, when the body simply needs a supply of replenishing water.
“One of the basic premises of any spirituality,” notes Holt, “is that our nonphysical selves also thirst.” Then, like with misinterpreting the signs of dehydration, we can seek to satisfy this spiritual thirst in ways that only increase the spiritual dehydration. We might over-eat, get in repeated and unhappy relationships, or become addicted to our job, a person, a movement, or alcohol, ... We might be at a point of dissatisfaction and seek a form of therapy that addresses real needs, but our deeper needs are arising from a lack of connection with our True Self.
What do we really want when we are experiencing spiritual dehydration? Holt remarks, “Christian spirituality identifies what we are really longing for as the living water of God, fresh and sparkling and pure.” Then, in agreement with my over-all message, he writes, “Another way to describe our deeper thirst is a thirst for love.” And, “We long to be loved, to love, and to live in a universe characterized by love.”
The Christian Scripture speaks of water quenching spiritual thirst (Psalm 63.1; Isaiah 55.1; John 7.37-38; Revelation 22.1-2). John 7.37-38 is a favorite of mine among these passages:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in [i.e., trusts in, faiths in] me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” [or, “let him come to me, and let him who believes in me drink. As…”]. (ESV)
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Here the Jesus of John’s Gospel presents the aspects of “inspiration” and “aspiration” as integral to addressing spiritual thirst. Grace is not the giving of something that we passively receive, apart from our participation. Any passivity is a chosen, active passivity. As May observes that surrender “cannot be an avoidance of anything.” Rather, “it involves a moving into life as it is given, with all of its joy and suffering, pleasure and pain.” And, likewise, “The paradox of spiritual surrender is that in giving oneself fully, one finds not passivity but ultimate involvement, not restrictiveness but endless freedom, not blameless quietude but the deepest possible sense of responsibility."
Therefore, the active, or the receiving of inspiration, which addresses our sense of spiritual thirst, is a choice of “come to me” and, likewise, “drink.” This entails a relationship of active, dynamic, chosen trust in: “trusts in me.” A deeply fulfilling relationship with God does not happen by chance, accident, or fate, rather, it happens as an ongoing choice, as does any deep relationship.
As I read John’s Gospel, I read it as a contemplative, or mystical, Gospel. I believe that is the genre of the work, which differs from the other Gospels in specific literary type. Jesus' words, therefore, can be read on two levels. One, Jesus, as the Teacher, embodying Spirit, or Father, is saying that anyone can come to him, for he communicates the grace from God. Then, the passage can be read in the sense of Jesus, as mystical, Wisdom teacher, being the Voice of God. Therefore, to hear Jesus is to hear God. This comports with the Jewish teaching on the hypostatic, prophetic word, or dabhar. Jewish prophets often did not distinguish between when they were saying something representing God and a direct quote from God. So, in this last interpretation, Jesus is God's mouthpiece, and to hear him in the Gospel of John is to hear an invitation directly from the Father, or Source. So, God, the Father, is saying, through the Word, “Come to me…” Regardless of the above alternative interpretations, the result is the same….
The aspiration aspect of the invitation above is the heart overflowing with “rivers of living water.” This signifies the satisfaction of thirst, to the extent of abundance. One becomes the source of the water she drank.
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