Water Lessons: part two, water shut off

Ironically as I began writing about watering the mums, my water was shut off. It was an accident, but it still gave me some additional perspective. Water lessons: part two, water shut off.

Water lessons from having it shut off

I was the reason my water was shut off. I changed something about our billing system and then I just flat out forgot when I didn’t receive the bill. Initially when I found out, I took care of the problem, and I didn’t feel too burdened about it. But when my children came home from school, and I had to explain the consequences of my mistake, I started feeling a little more shame and guilt – a little more like I didn’t want to say I was guilty. But what if I had genuinely been unable to pay my bills? What if I was unable to pay the outrageously high reconnect fee? How much harder would that burden have been?

I minister to women each week who have known the reality of this pain. You may have known this pain. Panic begins to set in, because water is very important, and I often take it for granted. It got worse when my husband came home, and although he did not chide me, I could tell he was panicked, which elevated my panic. He wanted to be able to use the bathroom or bathe the children or himself; make sure we had clean clothes to wear, or the ability to cook food. Water is provision.

We are unable to take life for granted when it dangles in the balance of need. We must offer the water. We have to offer life to those who need it. Jesus did it. When the Samaritan woman came up to draw water from the well, He did not hesitate because she was a Samaritan and he was supposed to be forbidden from speaking to her. He looked beyond the social standards and spoke, and His words were life.

Let’s look at their exchange:

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I 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 won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him. John 4:4-29

Jesus sees a need and he engages the woman in conversation. Then he proceeds to show her truth about her needs, who she is, who He is, what He can offer her, and how she can be changed and made whole. Don’t you know that this woman was hungering for this encounter? She lived a life of slavery to sin, maybe even to people pleasing. She hungered for affection. She wanted to be valuable to someone. I bet she carried shame and fear. She wanted to be rid of the consequences of all that came with five husbands. And finally, she met the One person who could turn her whole life around. If you are a follower of Christ and you’ve been filled with His living water, it needs to overflow into others hearts, but again, fill yourself first that it might overflow.

Prayer Time:

Father God, open our eyes to see the needs of people around us right now. You are the Gardener and we ask that you will use us as your tools to water the souls of thirsty men and women. May we be willing to meet their physical and spiritual needs. Use us Lord. Let our every day encounters become holy moments give by you. Amen.

What you can do:

Consider sponsoring a woman who needs clean water by supporting, Neverthirst, to meet a physical need.

Look for everyday encounters in which you can offer spiritual living water to someone spiritually thirsty.

Pray and ask God to make your soul ready to be a tool He can use to extend grace to someone.

If you want to know more about living water, contact me. I’d be glad to answer questions.