First, hello again. I know it's been a while since I've blogged. Secondly, prepare yourself. We are about to talk about some REAL issues, heart issues. You know the ones, those secrets which we hold so closely to ourselves, afraid that if someone even glimpses them, they'll never look at us the same way again. Well, I am here, and I am real. I am struggling. This particular blog is about my transparency, with you, friend. It would be a lie to say that I've been walking in transparency with anyone. There has been sin in my life which has stayed hidden away, one of those secrets that I keep to myself because I'm afraid, that if anyone even catches a glimpse of it, they might see me differently. I am, as I strongly suspect that you already know, quite imperfect. I'm untrusting, self-serving, self-gratifying, unfaithful, and fully undeserving. I admit that it's rather unnerving writing this down in a blog, but I want to live in the light, no longer separated from the Living Water that I've been turning away from, but fully embracing the spring of life that Jesus brings to me.
First, in case you're unaware, please believe me when I say that Jesus Christ is the living water. In other words, He brings life into our soul, meaning into our lives, and purpose. Without Him we are left to chase our own debacles, our failures, ultimately wondering what we were chasing after for fulfillment in the first place. I was chasing after love. When I think back on my experiences, the first place that I am brought to in Scripture is Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the well. Jesus was incredibly faux pas. First, he was a man, talking to a woman, alone, asking for a drink of water. This was SCANDALOUS, absolutely SCANDALOUS. But, not only that, she was a Samaritan, known as a half-breed to the Jewish community, and hated by them consequently. And finally, if that weren't enough, she was an adulterer, kicked out of the community (which is why she wasn't at the well in the morning with the other ladies of the town) having not 1 or 2 relationships, but 6 in total. Six relationships! She was looking for love, but I think it was a bit obvious that she hadn't found it. But this was her day! She didn't know it, but THIS was the day when her life would change, this was the day that she would never be thirsty again. Here's how her story goes:
John Chapter 4:
"The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord heard of this, he left judea and went back once more to galilee. Now, he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?' (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food) The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?' (For Jews did not associate with Samaritans) Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.'
'Sir,' the woman said, 'you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?'
Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
The woman said, 'Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.'
(Here comes the important part of the story for us to note)
He told her, 'Go call your husband and come back.'
'I have no husband,' she replied.
Jesus said to her, 'You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.'
....................... [continuing at verse 28)
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?' They came out of the town and made their way toward him."
Jesus' interaction with this woman is complicated, but what we must draw from this is simple. First, God knows EVERYTHING. Jesus had never met this Samaritan woman before, yet he knew every detail of her life, intimately. Likewise, He knows every detail of our lives intimately, whether we choose to share it with him or not. He knows those secrets which we think we hide so well, that we think are hidden away in dark places. They are not hidden from his sight.
Secondly, He offers us a living water. What exactly is living water? What does this mean? This is how it simplifies. This Samaritan Woman had chased after love for her entire life, so much so that she had already had 5 husbands, and was now in an adulterous relationship with a sixth man, a sixth. So many men, so little love, so little satisfaction. She thirsted after men, because that is where she thought she'd find satisfaction and fulfillment. She was wrong.
We are an empty, thirsty people, running after things which will never fulfill us. Even the richest man longs for something more than money, the philanderer longs for more fulfillment than sex could ever give him. We long for something more.
Jesus offers us that. What He offers us will quench our desire, quench the seemingly never-ending thirst we feel for more in this life. He offers us living water, an everlasting love, riches beyond compare, fulfillment like we have never dreamed. But to inherit this, we must live in the light. We must be cleansed by the living water, shedding those dark places, becoming transparent to the living God, becoming transparent to his church. At first, it's terrifying. What will they think of me? I am too ashamed. How will I ever find the courage? How could I ever be so open, so revealing in front of others? Courage comes from the the daily renewal. Drinking from the well of living water every single day gives us the courage to cast off those masks which have hidden our true identities. It gives us courage to say that we are not ashamed of our mistakes, because grace covers over our sins. In the eyes of God that shame is washed away, and we are clean, like lambs before him, spotless. He loves us with the love of a true Father, a Creator who longs to be in relationship with his sons and daughters no matter the mistakes.
In Christ, there is freedom. In walking in the light, there is freedom. I pray that we no longer live in the dark, scared and ashamed, but that we would drink daily of the living water, and find ourselves living in the light, with all our sins washed away, pure in His sight. Amen.
