Jesus said to her,, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.”- John 4:13-14
“No matter how much we try to run away from this thirst for the answer to life, for the meaning of life, the intensity only gets stronger and stronger. We cannot escape these spiritual hungers.”- Ravi Zacharias
I grew up on West 89th Place in Evergreen Park, IL (home on left in photo, circa 1978). Across the street and three houses to the east lived three menacing brothers, whose mere presence struck terror in my heart. Products of a dysfunctional home life, the middle brother of the three once attempted to run my Schwinn bicycle into a parked car. The brothers also were the prime suspects when the trunk of the tree on our front lawn (Vicki’s 1969 Rambler American is parked next to it) was found almost totally severed.
My young mind interpreted their behavior as anger-infused bullying. Today I understand the brothers were trying to fill the emptiness inside with temporal fixes that left them high and dry. Just come to the well.
John Ortberg defines the spiritual life as “simply a way of referring to one’s life from God’s perspective.” God’s intent is to redeem our life. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water from Jacob’s well, Jesus already was sitting there. He engaged the woman in a penetrating, theological, and personal discussion about living water and her relationship with God. William Berry (Finding God in All Things) writes:
“Whether we are aware of it or not, at every moment of our existence we are encountering God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is trying to catch our attention, trying to draw us into a reciprocal, conscious, relationship.”
The three brothers subconsciously sensed there was Someone present in the Henning household that sorely was missing from their lives. Following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss, what are your goals? Kyle Idleman (Gods at War) points out that goals of food, entertainment, success, or achievement can become gods. We start to serve, live, and sacrifice for them. Although God gives us the freedom to say no to His invitation to come to the well, Kyle states God “insists on giving us every possible, conceivable chance to say yes.”
Just come to the well.
