Flatlined

     The words don't come as easily. The thoughts don't flow like they once did. What once seemed natural like breathing has stopped. Fritz has passed from life to death to life. I now have a choice to make. To breathe or to flat line.
Remember the water stops? Runners who need to be re-hydrated? Some elite runners thinking they are invincible, running right on by without stopping; their bodies accustomed to intense physical training. Are they the ones who win the race? Are they the overcomers?  What about those who quickly hydrate along the way, recharged and refueled, ready to tackle the next mile. Are they the overcomers? Many are not very serious to begin with. They have not disciplined themselves to train, and the only goal they have is to finish. Stopping to take their water, they look forward to the chance to stop and drink it, happy to rest while walking.  No discipline seems pleasant at the time. Just one goal- finish the race. Get to heaven. Doesn't matter what it looks like along the way, a long as when its over, you don't go 'there'.  A few people don't make it. You see them lying in the road, collapsed from muscle cramps, exhaustion, or dehydration. The ambulance workers tend to them, carrying them off the race course on a stretcher.
Remember the woman at the well? She was not an elite runner by any stretch of the imagination. She was not disciplined enough and had made many mistakes along the way. But she was consistent at least. She came to the well everyday, and she knew how she should live if she really wanted to do things right. She knew what the law said. Because she knew the law, she thought she wasn't good enough. She thought she was a failure. But she didn't give up; she kept trying. She kept coming to the well everyday for water. At least she knew what she needed when she was thirsty. She was a good runner, until one day Jesus deliberately interrupted her life, giving her living water so she would never be thirsty again. She realized she is good enough. She is not a failure and she is an overcomer. Her discipline, her weakness, her failures, and her ability to believe Jesus' words are what made her an overcomer. She became a great runner.  When Jesus changed her identity as a sinful woman to an overcomer she passed from death to life. She became more than a conqueror.
Our friend John wrote in his letter to the church, "we know we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers....this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (Jn. 4:14) It wasn't enough for the woman to know who He was, she needed to allow Him to change her life. To believe Him and obey Him and be changed by Him. She drank the water. Her identity was changed. She went back to those she knew and loved them like never before by allowing them to see the change in her life that was a result of her encounter with Jesus. She believed she was more than a conqueror. Because of her new identity in Christ, she was transformed by the renewing of her mind. She knew, as we are told in Romans (5:15-21) the gift is not like the trespass. The trespass brought death to many, but the gift that came by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, the living water, overflows to many. The gift, the water, followed many trespasses and brought justification, new life to all who will drink it. Where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The scripture says, offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. The woman at the well offered herself to God as one who had been brought from death to life. All the runners are given the same choice. Run hydrated or hardly run. Run like you're thirsty. Live or die. Die like you're living or live like you're dying. Drink the water or pass on by. Drink the water and be changed, or flat line. Tasteless. Lifeless. Breathless. Flatlined.
We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. If God is for us, who can be against us? Christ Jesus, who died- more than that who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. For me! Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who shall separate me from Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, we face death all day long! All the runners face death with every step, and with every breath. No matter what we bring with us to the well or what we have to draw the water with. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Neither death nor life....nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:28-39