Matt W Cook

The deer pants for water. I think David’s analogy is pretty profound. The deer pants. It doesn’t just want. It doesn’t just agree that water is a fitting thing to pursue. It doesn’t even have faith that water will be a satisfying thing, once obtained. It just pants. It couldn’t even really tell you why it panted. It only knows that there is something deep within it that screams out for water. An insatiable urge that it cannot control, manufacture or deny. It simply pants.

What a picture!

When I first realized that David was simply expressing his own desires for God, it worried me. It worried me because of how little it is like the way I desire God. I know that God is all-satisfying. I know that tasting him proves his goodness. I know that I will be restless until I find rest in him. But do I pant?

I was worried.

But then I had a realization: the Christian life is better compared to a treatment plan than a quick cure. Sin is more like a resilent cancer than appendicitis. It’s not something that is simply cut out. It takes years of vigilent fighting.

I have soul-cancer. It poisons my mind and emotions so much that I pant for gasoline and shun water. But the cancer is being cured. David’s was cured so much that he panted for the right things. I pant to pant. I desire to desire. I’m on the right track. I’m taking chemotherapy. I’m still sick but the cure is on the way.

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