Are you a spring or a bucket?
In this social media age, the question remains - How to be a well that doesn't have to go to other sources for satisfaction.
"'so [Jesus] came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. "Give me a drink," Jesus said to her because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered, "If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would ask him, and he would give you living water." "Sir," said the woman, "you don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this 'living water'? You aren't greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock." Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life."- John 4:5-14 CSBJesus tells this unknown Samaritan woman that he can give her living water. Not only can he give her living water, but this is water that will turn into a well in us and we will never be thirsty. We learn a little later in the story the significance of what Jesus says here. This unnamed woman has had five husbands and the man she is currently living with is not her husband. In other words, she is continually going to different people to satisfy the needs that she has. Jesus says that the water he gives will become a well deep in us; you can divide humanity into two categories, wells, and buckets.
Buckets have limited capacity, and they regularly have to be re-filled. The person who is a bucket is going to things to fill them, to satisfy their needs and when that is used up they go to the next thing. For you and me, it may not be multiple husbands like the Samaritan woman, but maybe it's the validation of others on your social media feeds. We go to this well of social media to get water that eventually runs out and we have to go to it, again and again, to feel satisfied. However, this satisfaction never lasts. So we go to this well more and more to try to find the satisfaction that lasts. Jesus then comes along and says to the Samaritan, "The water I give will become a well in you." In other words, "you won't have to go to other sources of water, you will become this well of living water.
I personally long for that. I long to be a well that doesn't have to go to other sources for satisfaction. I long to be the kind of person that feels the satisfaction that Christ truly provides. By God's grace, I am growing in that daily.
I also love how other translations put that phrase, the NIV says: "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." The picture of a spring leads to other connotations as well. A spring is a moving body of water that can lead to other things growing in an area. In other words, the person who has been with Jesus becomes a force of growth and renewal in their community.
The question then becomes for us, are you a spring or a bucket? Are you someone who is regularly having to be refilled by others to provide temporary renewal, or are you a spring where other things can grow around you?
What are the pathways to be transformed from a bucket to a spring or well full of living water? I do want to provide a brief caveat here. There are real and valid needs that we all have, and the point that Jesus is making here is not that you can just be alone and Jesus will satisfy all of your needs for friendship and affirmation. However, Jesus does promise to satisfy them more completely. One of the ways he does this is through his church. God uses physical means to point to accomplish spiritual acts. Which actually brings me to my first pathway:
1. Regularly be around other Christians
One of the most explicit pathways that God has given us to turn into springs is other Christians. It is with other Christians that we are encouraged, and those deep relational needs are satisfied. We see in the book of Acts that the Christians are regularly gathering, they are described as a family. Jesus satisfies our relational needs by joining us together with other Christians! However, this cannot be the only thing that we do, which brings me to the second pathway, meditation on scripture.
2.. Meditate on Scripture
Psalm 1 describes the Bible as a stream of water. If we want to be a spring of living water then we must have our soul and our mind filled with scripture. Notice that I did not say "read scripture" though that is important, meditation and reading are two different activities. Reading is just that, reading. Meditation is the active process of letting the words of scripture soak into our minds. A pastor in New York defines meditation as "The discipline that lights the fuse between the understanding of the mind and the tasting of the heart." Meditation can take a million different forms, it is simply doing whatever burns a fire in your heart for God and his word.
These are just two ways that we can begin the process of transforming from a bucket to a spring, and there are about a million other ways. Ultimately understand that it cannot be done apart from a relationship with Christ first, and a relationship with Christians around you. So, find ways to do this with your friends, and grow in this journey of becoming more like Christ, who is the perfect example of a spring of living water.
