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The Well

In the middle of an otherwise normal day, the woman at the well in John 4 suddenly realizes that God is pursuing her. He’s not pursuing the temple in Jerusalem or a huge gathering of people on a mountainside, but he’s pursuing her.

Have you ever had that moment? Have you ever felt stale and hardened in your heart and yet sensed God trying to break through the thickness and say, “I am not a book. I’m not words on a screen that you sing. I am a Person who wants to know you”?

I remember when it happened to me and I realized: “I am almost certain there is way more to this than I’m allowing in my life.” Jesus always answers this moment the same way he answered it for the woman at the well: “I who you speak to am He.”

The Samaritan woman thought she was standing beside a well and talking to a man. But she was really standing beside a hole in the ground and talking to the Well. The hole offered only temporary relief. In the same way, the “wells” we try to draw from are mere holes that leave us spiritually parched. They leave us wilted and longing for something satisfying, something eternal.

All of us go through life with an idea of what we rely upon and what works best for us. We’ve had relationships that went great and others that faltered. We’ve figured out our strengths and weaknesses. We’ve drafted our pros and cons list. We’ve beaten a path to our own little “wells” so often that we consider them essential to fulfill not only our wants but also our needs.

Here’s the problem: Our own wells don’t exist. They are a mirage concocted by the desires of our flesh and worsened by the enemy of our souls. What we consider wells are mere holes. They may produce benefits or even a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, but the results never last. The thirst always returns.

When we draw upon anything or anyone other than Jesus for contentment, hope, security, peace, and life, we trade the only true Well for a meaningless hole. Jesus insists on talking about living water rather than our well water. He insists on being a singular source. He insists on being the Well.