Polluted Water.

(This is Part 3 of our devotional series “Press – The Musical”.)

Good morning, peeps!

“And I want to be like a tree ~ planted by the streams of living water.” – from “Tree” by Justin Rizzo

Unless you have been stuck in a cave for the past three years, you know about the water crisis in Flint, MI. In April 2014, Flint began drawing water from the Flint River for its 100,000 residents instead of relying on water from Detroit. People immediately complained about the smell, taste and appearance of the water, and raise health concerns, reporting rashes, hair loss and other problems. That info right there is what I found on USNEWS’ website and all of this time I thought this – the lead mess – was the way it had been forever and someone just now decided to blow the lid off of the situation. But no. This wasn’t the way things had always been. Something was changed.

“It’s been more than three years since Flint, Michigan switched its water source in an effort to save money, which led to a man-made public health crisis.” – USNEWS

My dad found Jesus when I was a 4-year-old and…yeah. Like I’ve said countless times before, I don’t think Jesus was all that lost in the first place because a lot of other people found Him, too. (You know that was a good one. You may laugh.) This was not the first time I’d heard about Jesus, though. My parents both came from religious backgrounds. Let me just put this out there: most black people do. My dad’s Pops was a well-loved deacon in our city and my mom sung in church choirs as a teen and would sing those songs to me. And, we had the mandatory toddler-sized bible on our coffee table. So you see, my exposure to “living water” had happened before I actually joined a church.

“And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.” – Isaiah 34:9-11 KJV

I joined church when I was four and have been jacked up ever since: my water got polluted.

–d.