Come to the Waters

Rev. Brandon Blacksten

May 10, 2025

Reading

Hear, everyone who thirsts;
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
Isaiah 55:1-3

Reflection

Even though I know better, I still find myself mindlessly scrolling on my phone way too often.

Most of the time, when I realize what I’m doing, I fall into self-recrimination. “Why are you wasting time? Don’t you know better? Shouldn’t you be better than this by now? You’ve preached sermons about this, for goodness’s sake.”

Shaming myself does not help. It only creates another negative emotion to avoid dealing with. And the cycle repeats.

Occasionally, though, I’ll ask myself instead, what are you really looking for? Often, in these situations, I am looking for a distraction from negative feelings, a sense of agency, something that gives me a sense of meaning—in short, things that my phone cannot provide. Yet I still find myself looking.

Humans are masters at looking for important things in places we know we cannot find them. We seek fulfillment in wealth, power, pleasure and fame, even though we know at some level that these won’t satisfy us. This problem is not new—it’s as old as humanity. Isaiah asks, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” In other words, stop wasting your money on things that do not satisfy when good, satisfying food is freely available to you.

Where are you wasting your money, time, or attention on what can never satisfy you? It may not be your phone. It may be overwork, amassing wealth, alcohol, seeking accolades, sex, accumulating followers, arguing on social media, living through your children’s success, or other pathological attempts to find satisfaction.

None of these can satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts because we are created for deep, loving relationship with God. Nothing else can satisfy. The good news, though, is that God’s love is freely available to us.

As Isaiah proclaimed, “Hear, everyone who thirsts; come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

Loving union with God is freely offered to each of us. All we have to do is let go of the ways we seek to fulfill the desires which only God can fulfill.

This week, when you find yourself trying to fulfill your desires with something other than God, instead of giving in to shame or self-recrimination, try offering the behavior to God. Try praying this prayer from Robert Mulholland: “Lord, I love you more than this, and I offer myself to you by abstaining from this behavior.” This simple change can shift our focus from ourselves and our abilities to God and our desire for God, the one who can truly fulfill our desire.

Real life is not to be found by scrolling on our phones, or any of the manifold ways we look for God in all the wrong places. It’s to be found in God, who invites everyone who thirsts to come to the waters and drink.

Prayer

Providing God,
You have blessed us with the bread of life,
But too often we seek life
in that which cannot satisfy.
Help us never to be satisfied
With any substitute for you,
But instead to seek you
With singleness of heart and mind
So that we might experience
The life that is really life.
Amen.