Almost every morning, I start my day with a wonderful, magnificent cup of coffee. I have been through the season of drip coffee makers, pod coffee makers, and now I am back to a good old-fashioned percolator. The coffee is magnifico!

I must be careful throughout the day, because after that cup of coffee, I do not drink very much of anything. Since I rarely get thirsty, I must remind myself to drink all through the day. I have trained myself to drink flavored bubbly water, cold citrus tea, and at times, a couple of other beverages. I’m not usually thirsty, but when I am, the only thing that will satisfy that craving is water. When I am thirsty, I can gulp down an entire bottle of room-temperature water. Nothing else will quench my thirst.

It’s what I drink that determines whether my thirst will be quenched.

There is a story in John chapter four of Jesus encountering a Samaritan woman at a well. As the woman came to the well, she came for water to quench her thirst. That day would be different from all the other days she had been to the well. Read the story to give fresh vision to the exchange between the Samaritan and Jesus.

Jesus began to tell her about a water that would be living water, and she would never thirst again. Was Jesus saying she would never need the water from the well again? Not at all. The woman came to the well to get what she thought she needed, but Jesus came to the well to give her what she really needed.

I will not rehearse the entire story, but there is so much to see. We are told that this woman has been married five times and is presently living with a man who is not her husband. She did not tell Jesus this, Jesus told her this. I wonder if she gasped. I wonder if she hung her head. I wonder if she thought this was just another person who would make fun of her, ridicule her, or shame her.

Since the woman came in the middle of the day to get water, it is widely accepted that she did not want to be around others. One would normally come draw water early when it was not so hot, because that heavy jug filled with water would be a burden to take home. It would be even worse in the heat of the day.

How many times had she been shamed by others? She did not want to hear their snickers or see their looks of disgust as she approached the well. Maybe the townspeople made sure she knew her place!

We don’t even know if they knew her whole story. We do not know why she had been married so many times. Men could divorce a woman any time they wanted. They could divorce her because they did not like her cooking, her mother, or the way she looked. How many times had she been rejected and abandoned? Yet, she continued to try to find fulfillment in another relationship. If she could just find the right relationship, all would be well, but instead she repeatedly found sorrow, rejection, and shame.

It did not take the Samaritan woman long to find out that Jesus did not come to heap shame upon her, but He came to take shame from her. When Jesus started to speak with the woman and confront her issues, she changed the subject to religion. Jesus was not interested in discussing religion. Jesus came to give her freedom from the shame that had controlled her life.

Others had written her off, but not Jesus. The Bible tells us that He intentionally came through Samaria, and His intention was a divine appointment that would bring a life-changing, freedom-giving, shame-killing, joy-filling encounter to her life.

As I was thinking about this scripture story this morning, I thought about myself. When life is difficult, people are mean, things do not work out, the devil reminds me of my mistakes, or I feel left out, to what well do I run for relief? Where do I go when I am thirsty because life has parched my soul?

I have served the Lord for decades, and yet too often when life has parched me, I turn to the wrong well for a drink. Often our well of choice is shopping, or entertainment, or food, or social media, or relationships.  Those are not terrible things, but they are not the answer for a soul that is parched. It is so easy to turn to the wrong well, and when we do, we find that we are as parched as ever.

I ask you the same question I asked myself today. From which well will you drink when life is hard? We need to fight to drink from His well and allow nothing and no one to replace this source of living water. Don’t drink from the natural source of water in the wilderness of your soul, sit by the well of the Spirit and drink deeply from the water of life. Jesus is waiting at the well to have a conversation with you! Drink the good stuff.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” – John 4:13-14