DAY 1: Always Thirsty, Never Satisfied

I’ve never truly been thirsty—until I met someone who was. She wasn’t playing or pretending. Every sip was survival. Cup after cup, she drank like her life depended on it—because it did. And as I sat there watching, I realized: while I’ve never lacked water, I’ve known the same kind of emptiness in my soul.

In a hotel room in northern China, I watched my new daughter, Jolee, discover water. At eight years old, her body was frail from years of neglect. My older girls showed her how to use the faucet, and she quickly grasped the lesson. Cup after cup, she gulped down the water, eyes wide with wonder. She wasn’t playing. She was desperate. For her, this wasn’t curiosity—it was survival.

I’ll never forget the urgency in her drinking. And I recognized it, not in my body, but in my soul.

How many times have I tried to satisfy my thirst with achievements, relationships, or possessions? I’ve chased affirmation through letters after my name, linked my worth to performance, and tried to drown discontent with more responsibility, more busyness, more “Christian girl” checkboxes. Each time, I thought the next “cup” would finally quench the longing. But it never did.

Maybe you know that cycle, too. We keep drinking from whatever promises satisfaction, but it leaves us thirsty still.

Coleridge wrote, “Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.” That’s the human condition without God. Surrounded by options, but parched at the core.

Isaiah 55 opens with a different invitation:

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.”

The God who made us is also the One who satisfies us. What every other well leaves dry, He fills to overflowing.

Jolee couldn’t believe that water was hers for the taking. Neither can many of us when it comes to God’s offer. But His promise stands: if you’re thirsty, come.

DRINK DEEP

What “cup” do you keep refilling, hoping it will bring satisfaction? Today, pause and name it. Then hold it up to God and ask Him to be the One who quenches your thirst.