Sugarcoated: Finding Sweet Release From CravingsSample

Instead of basking in God’s love and mercy, we sometimes sink back into Adam and Eve mode and grab a fig leaf. In truth, shame is a potent combination of failure and pride. When we fall prey to our inherent weaknesses and sinful nature, we feel like we’ve failed our family, failed our friends, and have especially failed God. And good gracious, with the pressures on social media to at least look like we have the perfect body, the perfect kids, and the perfect life, failure of any kind is simply not an option. So what do we do when we feel like a failure?

We hide. We hide in our homes. We hide in hotel rooms. We hide behind social media and career facades. We hide behind Netflix or ESPN. We hide behind photo filters and costly brands. We hide at the casino, the liquor store, or the local pharmacy.

My friend, we have our own noontime well just like the Samaritan woman in the Bible.

Remember her? She was really good at hiding. She is never named, yet her encounter with Jesus is the longest one between the Messiah and any other individual in the Gospel of John. Traveling through Samaria with His disciples, He encountered her drawing water from the well. He asked her for a drink, and their talk took off from there—culminating in her salvation and many more from her town too.

We know a few facts about her. While her name is never revealed, we know she was a Samaritan, a race with whom Jews did not associate. We know she had had five husbands and was now with a sixth man who was not her husband. We also know, from understanding cultural traditions of that time, that women typically drew water in groups in the cool of the morning, and it was often a social occasion. The fact that she was drawing water alone, in the heat of the day, indicates she was a social outcast.

Because of her past and present, this woman lived with a constant feeling of shame. Yet after talking with Jesus, she discovered He already knew of her transgressions and still offered her living water to cleanse her soul and give her eternal life. She was in total amazement and ran to tell everyone she knew!