Today, I hopped on the tractor (for the last time for quite some while, I hope) to finish mowing the pecan orchard. Decked out in my straw hat from Haiti, manure-covered blue jeans to protect against poison ivy, and my Nalgene bottle with fresh, ice-cold water. (Word on the street is that those Nalgene bottles are indestructible!)

Five minutes into the mowing, I hit a massive bump in the orchard that knocked my bottle off the tractor and under the shredder I was pulling. Three seconds later, my indestrublbe Nalgene bottle filled with fresh, ice-cold water was nothing but a memory as the shredder promptly sliced it in half as if it were a stick of butter.

After a few choice words, I grabbed the remains that once made up my indestructible Nalgene bottle and returned to mowing the 20 acres of orchard.

Then the heat came...all 100 degrees of it.
And the dust and pollen flew.

And I grew thirsty.

Four hours later, I finally finished the mowing and parked the overheated tractor in the barn. It's safe to say I was a bit upset, parched, and overheated myself. Since then I've downed various types of fluids (water, apple juice, and Dr. Pepper...but not at the same time), eaten a light lunch, and cooled off. Now that I can look back on the experience in gratitude for surviving such an ordeal, let me share some tidbits that I took away from mowing today:

1. ATTENTION John Deere, Ford, and whoever else makes tractors--please install cup holders on your stinkin' equipment. You know that your beastly machines heat up to close to 300 degrees. You know that in most farming states, temperatures can get close to 100 degrees several weeks out of the year. So you know farmers will get hot and thirsty...you know, with that 300 degrees coming from below and 100 coming from above. So give us cup holders.

2. Nalgene bottles don't stand a chance when it comes to a shredder. Wus.

3. Never again will I underappreciate water. I understand how precious it must be to those who survived Hurricane Katrina. And I remember how important it was in a place like Haiti. Odd thing is that for the Katrina victims and Haitians, it's the rush of water that nearly took their lives away. And afterwards, it's the lack of that same substance that threatens their lives again.

4. In John 4, Jesus talks to the Samaritan lady at the well. He's thirsty and asks her for a drink. He then offers her living water--eternal life. As desperate as I was this morning for a drink of water, I must not forget the eternally quenching power of the living water that Christ provides. And even more importantly, I mustn't neglect our Maker's desire for us to be the vessels that carry this water to others in need.

Nalgene doesn't have anything on us.