Coming Up Empty

Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived in a small town. She grew up with many dreams hidden in her heart, she grew up with hope that her life would be a magical fairytale, a story recounted by many for its romantic allure. Instead she finds herself, a young woman, walking this familiar desert road that leads to nowhere...again. “What happened?” She asks herself.

She walks along the lonely desert road, a road she knows all too well. The dust defies her sandals and gets between her toes and she wiggles them furiously, until she's comfortable again. If only shaking off her past was that easy. A bead of sweat drips from her brow as the noonday sun beats down on her darkened skin. She picks up the pace of her strides, but the bucket and rope in her hand hinder her from going as fast as she could.

She'd left her boyfriend at home. It was bad enough that she was with him, she didn't want to parade her pain in the streets as well. She sifted through her past relationships in her mind, looking for one, just one, that had not ended in pain but she came up empty. Her life had been filled with one disappointment after the next. She used to hold out hope that some knight in shining armour would come and fill the emptiness that sat defiantly in her heart but she had yet to meet the one who would bring perpetual fulfillment. She thought about her new boyfriend, his title as temporary as his position in her life. She knew better now than to hope for permanence. She knew better than to hope for love.

She trudged uphill, her destination now within view. As she approached the well at Sychar, she both embraced and reviled the solitude she felt here. She dropped the jars in her hands as she reached the stone structure and let out a heavy sigh. At least there was no one here. She began to let the bucket down slowly.

“Will you give me a drink?”

She jumped backwards, startled. There was someone else here?! She walked around the well to see where the voice was coming from. A jew sits, back pressed against the stone well, looking tired but somehow still alert. His piercing brown eyes look at her and she feels as transparent as the clear water that lay at the bottom of this well. Her brow furrows at His unusual request.

“You’re a Jew and I’m a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Doesn't He know that they're virtually enemies by association? Nevertheless, her curiosity is peaked.

He replied, “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.”

‘Living water?’ Was this man drunk? What's living water? Despite the curious nature of their conversation, something tells her this man is sober, sober and very different from anyone she'd ever met. She plays along.

“Sir,” the woman says, “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, just like his sons and his livestock did as well?”

He leans against the well and looks into its depths. “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.”

Never thirst? Logic told her it wasn’t possible but a lifetime of drawing from this well and coming up empty had birthed a desperation within her for something...more, something that would relieve her of the shame that mocked her every time she took the journey to this now seemingly subpar source. Her heart reached out, wanting to take hold of the impossible.

“Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” If she didn’t have to walk here, then maybe the shame would go away. Maybe then she could live her life without the judgmental gazes of the masses, maybe then she could finally be happy.

“Go, call your husband and come back.” He commands, and her eyes immediately shoot to His. Husband? She lifts a hand to her chest, trying, somehow, if possible, to hold heart together. How could one question unlock so much unresolved pain within her?

She hangs her head, “I don’t have a husband.”

“You’re right when you say you don’t have a husband. The fact is, you’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re with now is not your husband. What you’ve just said is true.”

She takes a step back, her mouth agape. How could he possibly know…? A defensiveness rises up within her, an automatic reaction to having all her cards laid bare by someone she had never met. She was used to being judged. It’s why she made this trip at high noon everyday, so she wouldn’t have to endure the knowing looks of the others who knew her story.

“Sir,” the woman says, “I can see that you’re a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” She gives the only excuse she has but that also comes up empty.

“Believe me, 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 the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

“I know that the Messiah is coming.”, she replies, “when he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

“I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” he says boldly.

His words are so absolute. She believes Him. She remembers the many times she has visited this well, letting down her bucket but coming up empty. Going home...empty. The symbolism of this moment is not lost on her.

She is not without hope. Her people are not without hope. This was the anointed one, the chosen one. And He was showing her the way to freedom, to a life not defined by her failures but decided by her worship. There's a new Way, One that doesn't require her to journey to Jerusalem to please God. She doesn’t understand the fullness of what He’s saying but she knows she's leaving this well with something she's never found before: hope.

In an instant, her life is forever changed. Everything that has gone before flashes in front of her eyes but fades immediately to a distant memory in light of her Saviour. She feels her heart expand with a hope she's sure won't disappoint.

Just then, a group of men appear. She casts a glance at them but her eyes quickly to return to the Messiah's. “Please, don't leave yet. I can’t keep this to myself. Let me go tell my town this good news.”

He nods in assent and she takes off running, the weight of everything she'd brought to the well, left on that mountain. She feels free, unencumbered, like a new woman, without the weight of her past attached. As she runs down this mountain, she knows she'll never be the same. She knows she'll never settle for a life of dishonour. She is going to worship God in Spirit and in truth.

Little does she know that in just two short days, she’ll be single and more fulfilled than she’s ever been.

The 2nd Beginning

Story taken from (John 4:1-28)

Hey ladies, it’s Valentine’s day! I hope you all have a wonderful day! To all my boo’d up gals, have a great one!

To my singles: Let’s not go back to something that broke us looking for fulfillment. I know it can get lonely, I’m single too, but today let’s hold each other accountable. Don’t draw from the same empty well you used to draw from just for company. You’re worth more than that. Draw from Christ and you will not come up empty. I promise you that. Anddd there are tonnes of things we can do as singles instead of staying at home and wallowing. You can take yourself to dinner (maybe you’re not as bold as me. I actually enjoy it lol), go out with girlfriends, or maybe Valentines day isn’t even on your radar, in which case, just do you boo! Whatever we choose to do, let’s honour God with our lives and our bodies.

#ValentinesDay #Jesus #JesusChrist #Singleness