Leaving Our Water Jars

"if you let something steal your thanksgiving, 

you let something steal your joy, 

and if you let something steal your joy, 

you let something steal your strength."

It's so easy when the clouds come and the rain pours. Everything feels heavy under piles of clothes. Piles of raincoats. Piles of fears. Life without thanksgiving is a distortion of what is true. I missed work this morning. For the millionth time. The alarm failed to go off - I failed to wake up. and let me tell you, nothing feels worse than knowing you have disappointed someone a million times. It's then that I began to wonder if I would ever be enough. Would I ever be able to live up to the expectation that I set for myself to be perfect? We both know that answer. and believe me I wasn't giving thanks in this moment for anything but the fact that I was alive.

Then, I remember Jesus talking to the woman at the well [John 4].

"Give me a drink.." he said to her."you are a Jew and I am a samaritan. How can you ask me for a drink?" 

Her words roll right into my own soul. How can you ask me for a drink? How can you love me so completely when I am so imperfect? Different words, same question. From there, I can do nothing but sit palms up to receive his "capitol G" Grace. and he goes on to answer us both:

"if you knew who I was, you would have asked me for the living water."
"I see nothing in front of me that look like living water"

My world distorts truth so that I start to think the living water comes in the form of material things. Society fools us into thinking that money, popularity, people, and perfection are wells full of life. But they run dry. After drinking from these we will be thirsty again, maybe even more thirsty than we were to begin with. But if we draw near, he says; if we sit palms up; if we ask him for a drink from his well; we will have eternal life.

So I sit and I lay out my heart for him to hear. but he already knows. in fact, he knows more than I thought. Some might say that in this passage he calls her out on her sins and sets her straight. Yeah, I see that. But I see the compassion in him more. I see him reaching for her heart instead of the whip. I see him saying "Woman, I know you better than you know yourself. Would you come to me so that I can give you eternal life?" and what does she do? she believes him. and then?

"Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and told the people who she had talked with."

She left her water jar. She left the distortion of real and went to proclaim the truth. That was her thanksgiving. It overwhelmed her in a way that she had to share it with others.

When we approach Jesus like the woman at the well, we are able to receive grace; but more than that we are able to receive truth. By that truth, we are able to give all we have. By that grace we are able to do thanksgiving differently. So when we miss work for the million and first time, we are still able to give thanks. When we burn the turkey or we set unattainable expectations for ourselves this holiday season, we can sit down with a palms up and our hearts turned towards Jesus. We can leave our water jars and share Him with this thirsty world.

Here's to Women who lead the path to grace, a new kind of thanksgiving, and the living water. May we continue to drink of that till our last breath.

Hallelujah, Amen.