Cistern Christian

I hope someone gets that little play on words. If not, its a reference to a great song from the 80's band Night Ranger. Sometimes I make myself smile :)

When I was growing up, we had well water. A water well is a deep hole in the ground that connects to underground water sources and was pulled up via an electric pump. There is a big difference in well water vs. city water (as we called it). Growing up, I learned to like well water and when we got converted to the water service in town, it took a bit of time to get used to it. On the positive side, you could finally go to the bathroom even when the power was out....YEAH! Our power went out regularly, but that is another story.

Water wells were common sites during Jesus' time. People would come to the village's well and gather water for their use, for their crops and animals. In John, we read an account of Jesus speaking with a woman at a water well. You have probably heard the story. She was from Samaria, the Jews did not associate with them, but He asked for a drink. She was a woman of little regard, had 5 previous husbands and was living with a man that wasn't her husband (there is a great lesson there, about our judgments and how Jesus treated this woman who had REALLY messed it up). Jesus also spoke to her about the living water that she could have if she asked. Jesus tells her in John 4:13-14 that:

“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.”

A spring of water welling up, constantly, to eternal life. I love the imagery here....comparing our physical thirst with spiritual thirst. I was on a mission trip in Arizona, where it is very dry. One thing we were constantly told was that we needed to have water with us at all times, and we needed to drink it consistently to avoid dehydration. On the first day, I was given the job of driving a minivan up into Navajo territory to pick up some kids for the camp. It was probably a 2.5 hour drive I think. I did not have anything to drink and with every breath, I was dehydrating myself. Just by breathing I was losing water. By the time we got to the pickup area, a group was selling hotdogs by the side of the road. I just about ran over people to buy some water, about 4 bottles. I was SO thirsty, and all I had done was drive in an air-conditioned car. That water was so good, so good. I can't fully explain how much it meant. Jason can probably relate, getting those water breaks during summer football practices.

I think about that when I read of a spring of water welling up in me. I think of how much that bottled water meant to me after that drive, and how refreshing water can be. Make no mistake, we live our lives in a dry spiritual environment. Just the act of spiritual existence in this world can draw the life out of us. This is why the disciplines of prayer and study and worship are so vital to us. Spiritually we are dying without it. This is one of the great values of fasting. Your body begins to cry out for food, and you begin to understand how our spirit dies without its nourishment. Jesus is promising a wellspring of eternal life, refreshing our spirits with the Holy Spirit, if we were only to take it.

Here is where we have struggle. We feel this spiritual longing, and we try to satisfy that need with sources that cannot promise what God can. I was thinking of Megan's prayer in her last post, particularly this line:

Let me choose you instead of searching for love in other places.

A lot of us have been there, she is courageous enough to speak about it. We search to fulfill our spirit's thirst everywhere but the place where true, living water is found. I imagine if when I stopped by the roadside hotdog stand in Arizona and began drinking from a muddy puddle, people would have tried to stop me. "Hey, you can have a bottle of water here." "Stop that, you can have one for free." People would have tried to buy me water to keep me from taking in that filth. It was not meant to quench my thirst. This is the place we find ourselves in so often....seeking contentment, gratification, and relief for our longing. We look to popularity, to alcohol, drugs, sex, relationships (reminds me of the woman at the well) to make things right in our lives. Only God can make things right, only God can truly quench your thirst eternally. These other sources of "water", they only last a short time. They feel good and right for a time, but in the end, they will disappoint and we find ourselves as thirsty as ever and broken by the experience.

Let's give ourselves over to the real living water, the true restoration that comes from a relationship with Christ. The Holy Spirit living in us, gushing forth with life. Hearts will be healed, relationships will be made whole, we will be finders rather than seekers. Others will find answers in our satisfaction through God. Living water, ever flowing, the only thing that can sustain and satisfy us.