John 4:4-26 is the story of Jesus interacting with the Samaritan woman by Jacob's well. This story has kept coming to my mind in recent weeks, but today I actually took the time to open it up and read it. What really struck me was verses 13-14 which say, "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.” I am sure I have read or heard that verse many times, but it really resonated in a new way today.
I think it is a result of being more aware of my feelings of loneliness recently. For the most part, they have not been that bad and it has been pretty good for me to sit in them and realize God's presence is always with me. But there are times when they can feel overwhelming and I find in myself this almost frantic attempt to try and fill them somehow. I am coming from a place of desperation and trying to find something to quench the feeling I am experiencing, whether I am aware of it or not.
For me that really resonates with what Jesus says about thirst. He describes two kinds of thirst- physical thirst and spiritual thirst. We all understand physical thirst, we need liquid to survive and our body craves that. Literally that is why both of them are at the well; to get a drink. Physical thirst is something we can be acutely aware of all our days this side of death. What Jesus describes to her is a thirst that can only be quenched by him, the living water. It is a spiritual thirst that manifests itself in different ways including emotional and relational (for her, a trail of ex-husbands and lovers). However, when we drink of Jesus, the living water, we no longer thirst, in fact we become a well for others which helps satisfy them in their thirst.
The New York Times defines the slang use of the word thirst tweet as, "a tweet where somebody thirsts over another person or, in other words, compliments them in a way that suggests that they have absolutely zero chill." I would say this defines a way to see when I am not living quenched by the living water of Jesus. When I see myself acting desperately in need of another person's attention, approval, etc. it is because my spirit is thirsty. As Jesus says, with him there is no reason for it to ever thirst again, but I for some reason have stopped drinking of the water that is freely available.
When I am spiritually quenched there flows out of me so much love, just like a fresh spring. I promise you it is not of me. On days where I am not "thirsty" I can run and pass people and pray for their best, for healing in relationships, and be filled with compassion. On days where I am thirsty, I can be haughty and get easily annoyed when people don't pay me any attention.
What I am taking from this is a quick way to see my own health, am I thirsting for something from someone or something that cannot quench? Or is there a spring of water flowing out of me that quenches others?
