Be refreshed by bringing refreshment to others

Summer has arrived with a vengeance, and refreshment is on our minds. The need for refreshment is not from the heat alone. Halfway through the year, many across our nation are in need of refreshment.

Unemployment, overwork and worry over continued employment can consume us. Complicated issues of health, caring for children or caring for parents can be squelching. In any given day there is a great heat that could cause refreshment to be needed regardless of the mercury. In times when the temperature of life is high and feels oppressive, the tendency is to shrink back and retreat. Yet being a source of refreshment is the way to be refreshed.

Proverbs 11:25 reads, "A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." Bringing refreshment to others is a privilege. A generous man or a generous woman is not necessarily one who is independently wealthy. The word generous used in this proverb describes someone who is a source of blessing. A source of blessing is someone who has chosen to allow resources to flow through them to others. Being a source of blessing is an honor. Being a source of blessing is a privilege. Being a source of blessing is looking past the blinders of self to the need of friends, family and your neighborhood.

A watermill has this huge waterwheel connected to the side of the building. The wheel has cups that collect water. Each time water is collected it turns the wheel, which turns the mechanisms inside the mill. It's challenging at best to calculate how many times throughout the course of mill's life water will fill those cups and be almost immediately poured out. Interestingly the water wheel is never empty. Being a source of blessing is like being the waterwheel: When you pour out you are refilled.

Being a blessing does not necessarily mean throwing money at a problem. If you have that resource, use it. If not, use what you have. Sit and have a glass of iced tea with an elderly couple you know. Offer to baby-sit for free for a couple who would give almost anything to have a couple of uninterrupted hours. Read a story to a group of children at the library.

Hearses don't pull U-Hauls. Legacies are not built in banks but in lives. Take time to intentionally invest your life and refresh someone today.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.