Even though I am in seminary, and have been for the last 7 years, I spend most of my time living in what some would call the "real world." Five days a week I get up and go to work, work with other people, and accomplish tasks. I make money in order to provide for my family and live, yet I do enjoy what I do.
As I have watched people work and live over the years, I see how driven they are. I see people who spend a lot of time trying to solve problems and get some recognition for themselves. I see others who genuinely thrive off of solving problems and creating things. I see others who live for the weekends and evenings and just want out. I see others who are searching for meaning in anything and everything.
There is an inexhaustible amount of people in this world who are looking for something. What it is, they just don't know. They seek it in clothes, food, cars, houses, careers, family, children, sex, drugs, power, money, fame, and the list goes on and on. These people are always searching but never finding. They are always running but never moving. They are always living but ever dead. Life for them is stale, empty and pale.
People wake up and hope that today, maybe, just maybe, they may find what they are looking for. After waiting and working, after saving and borrowing, they finally get that BMW Z3, but when they get it off the lot, sure, it is fun, but the emptiness is still gone. Others seek out that next relationship, trying to find someone who will give them meaning and affirmation, but after 2 years of the relationship, the emptiness is still there.
Here is a passage from John chapter 4 that gives us a clue as to what is going on:
John 4:7-15
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”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. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
The woman
A woman who has been searching and searching for meaning has finally been confronted with Meaning. She meets the Truth, the Life and the Way. This meeting is going to blow her away. Jesus stands by a well and meets her, and through a series of questions shows her that all she is seeking in life will never satisfy her. He shows her that everything apart from Him will not bring her meaning. The things that she is craving and desiring will never fill her up, for what she looks for is something that will fulfill her ultimate thirst.
The answer
Jesus knows that mankind has a thirst that can only be quenched by the infinite. He knows that in man is a well that is very, very deep. He knows that for this woman sex and men have not been able to fill it. So Jesus tells her that only he can fill the infinite craving and desire that she has. It is only the Maker that can provide meaning and purpose for the made. The Maker made the creatures to find all their meaning, value, purpose and satisfaction in Him. Nothing in life can bring satisfaction and fulfillment except for one thing, and that is the Maker Himself.
Jesus tells the woman that in order to find fulfillment that she must drink the water of Jesus Christ. She must find her meaning, value, purpose and satisfaction in Him. She will not find it in anything else.
Application
For those who are searching, all I can say is that you will never find what you are looking for until you find it in Jesus Christ, the Maker. You can keep on drinking from that car, house, sex, drugs, possessions, relationship, and you will keep on searching for more water. Until your soul finds its rest in Jesus Christ, the Maker, you will always be restless.
For those who think they have already found this living water, a simple question or two will do. Do you have joy? Are you still searching and seeking the well that you have already tasted from? Even though you have found your satisfaction, have you lost sight of it?
Conclusion
So drink from Him this morning and fill your soul with Him and His delights today.
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