“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water”           Psalm 63:1

Every once in a while a teacher has the privilege of teaching a truly enthusiastic student. Peta Barnsley was one such student and I was the teacher. She attended the Howick School of the Bible and was enrolled in the Christian Ethics Course. Despite her responsibilities as a farmer’s wife, a grandmother, and the session clerk at the Upper Umgeni Presbyterian Church, very little got her down.

Even after the conclusion of an intense three hour workshop on abortion she still had the energy to come and talk with me. As usual Peta was excited about what we had been learning and with irrepressible enthusiasm exclaimed; “I can’t understand why all the Christians in town aren’t taking this course … I just can’t get enough of it!”

That comment; “I just can’t get enough of it” has stuck with me. It’s been a reminder of how I should thirst for more. How it should be my daily exercise to cry to God saying, “I just can’t get enough of You!” That’s the bottom line. My “soul” should “pant … for the living God … as the deer pants for streams of water” Psalm 42:1-2. And I should “earnestly … seek” Him just as I would seek water “in a dry and weary land” Psalm 63:1.

“As the deer pants for the water, So my soul longs after You.

You alone are my heart’s desire, And I long to worship You.

For You alone are my strength and shield;

To You alone will my spirit yield.

For You alone are my heart’s desire, And I long to worship You.”

Martin Nystrom