When you ask your stingy friend to pitch in for an expensive meal and then realize it’s like getting water from a rock, you understand your dilemma. That dude ain’t coughing up no money.

Which is one reason why I love the story where God actually provided water from a rock. The Lord told Moses, speak to the rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. Although Moses went about it all wrong, water still gushed. A literal river—enough to satisfy a million or more thirsty people and goats and cattle.

This month my wife and I will join several professors and fellow Cru staff for a spring break outreach in Italy. The professors will speak at various universities, engaging with students invited by local ministries. We hope to help Italian students and profs consider Jesus in fresh ways and follow him fully.

But our efforts are just like getting water from a rock unless the Lord chooses to work. None of us can force another to come to faith. The decision is too personal and too huge, between God and each one of us. In Italy, as elsewhere, we only whack at stone until God intervenes.

We can, however, pray for others to experience Jesus, looking toward the one who made both the water and the rock. Lord, take our feeble efforts and pour out living water to the thirsty souls you place in our path.

Numbers 20 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Ethan Dow