The Renegade Psychiatrist – Think About Water, the Substance of Life 

By Larry Banta 

Driving through southern California one day, I noticed a sign on the exit in the grassy median, advertising that “we only use recycled water.” It made me start to think about water in general and wondering for the next several miles how you could find water that was not recycled? Maybe deep in a glacier somewhere? We have the same water that was created with our world, using it over and over. Water is an amazing substance. 

Have you ever stopped to consider water? It regularly pours out of our faucets, we shower, wash our clothes, drink it, mix it with flavoring. We use it without even thinking about it. We actually cannot live without it. Our bodies are mostly water. 

Jesus often spoke of water, using it to help explain some important spiritual truths. He met the woman at the well and offered her more than just water for her physical thirst. As the Creator he offered her the water of life. 

In John 4:13,14 we read: Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

A very simple substance, it is a molecule of just three atoms. However, the properties of that combination of atoms are almost beyond description. During college, I was privileged to do protein research in the biochemistry department. The chemistry library, a fascinating place, held my attention many afternoons as I perused the volumes of very interesting phenomena. I noticed one day, on the bottom of a shelf, a large two-volume set of books called simply, “Treatise on Water.” Curious, I picked the volume up with some effort to take a look. It was over 4,000 pages, mostly beyond my understanding. It was full of formulas and properties of that simple substance, all the things that it could do. Small wonder Jesus compared the water of life to the water we know so well and cannot live without. 

Some years later, for about one year, my family and I resided on the border of Uganda and Kenya with the Pokot tribe in a village called Kiwawa. We arrived at just the end of a major famine and drought. Conditions were challenging to say the least. I was a family physician at the time. The people there struggled to find water much of the year as the rivers had all gone dry.  Over-grazing had occurred, with loss of the trees and grass, which dried up the watershed. At that time many people were traveling five miles or more each day to get water and carry it back to their village. Often, they would dig into the sand of the riverbed and find some water. Soon the local wildlife would find it as well and drink it even lower. 

Sometimes the local animals would dig deep enough in the riverbed that the people could take advantage. Rain was infrequent and clouds were often disappointing. Over the years we would often speak of Pokot clouds. Severe dark, threatening clouds gather, then thunder and lightning and more darkness, a bit of wind…then a slight hole in the clouds, a bit of blue sky and then, so quickly, almost complete dissipation of the clouds. Sometimes it would rain at the wrong season, and there was no way to store the water in the ground. The watershed was dried up. 

Diseases from lack of water were common. Skin was easily infected. Ulcers would develop that were at times quite large. We were daily dealing with all of the problems from lack of water. Women in labor would become severely dehydrated; others with minor illnesses would become quite ill or die due to the lack of water. 

Then came the wells. At that time, wells were being drilled but at a very slow speed due to the hard rock below the surface and the water being so deep in the ground. It might take 3-4 months to fully develop the well and install a hand pump. One day an inventor showed up with a new drill bit that he wanted to try out with us. He hooked the new bit on the drill and we saw it go deep in the ground – very quickly. Pipes were added and within 12 hours a new well was in place. Then in a very short time, there were four wells near us. People gathered around the wells to bathe, drink and fill their containers. Skin became healthy, people were hydrated, and life was better. Water gave them new life. In many areas the new wells were the gathering point where local preachers could also provide the real water of life. 

Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’. And let the one who hears say, ‘Come’. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” 

And Isaiah 12:3: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” 

After our year in Pokot, we moved to an area of central Rift Valley near a town called Maralal. This was in the mountains at a high elevation so the weather was very nice. Every day we would go to what is called a ‘sink’ to get our water. This is where the water table is at ground level. We would just dip our buckets in and get all the water we needed. 

One day the elephants came in a large herd. They drank all the reachable water from the sink. We then had to travel for water, which could be as far as 10 miles every few days, to a flowing stream. The water was very precious. During the week, along with seeing patients with various interesting problems, and sharing God’s love with them, we would go out to the various manyattas (a collection of residences surrounded by a thorn fence) and gather people together for a Bible lesson or sermon. On Saturdays we would gather about 10 or so men and go drive around the bush looking for water deep enough to baptize. It was a weekly routine and took many hours. 

After services on Sunday, we would load up maybe 20 people in our Toyota Land Cruiser to head to the chosen spot for baptisms. Some weeks there were 8-10 and sometimes only one or two. This was another use for that amazing substance: following Christ in obedience, starting a new life in Christ. 

John 7:37-38 reads: “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’.” 

Consider the water; it is life-giving, lifesaving and comprises most of our bodies. So, when Jesus says He will give living water, we understand that just like water, He gives us life and sustains our life with His spirit so that we become springs of living water. That water springs forth from us to nourish the seeds planted in others. 

 From Revelation 21:6: “And he said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment’.” 

May the water of life spring forth from us to the thirsty souls around us. 

Dr. Larry Banta is an author of several books, a retired psychiatrist, and a former missionary. He served in India, Mexico and Kenya. He and his wife, Evelyn, a counselor, travel together to provide consultation and training in various international locations.