John 4:1-42 | What's the lesson for me today?

As I read through this passage, a few things capture my attention. Among other lessons one that hits me particularly hard is how the one who drinks the living water will never thirst again. Evidently, Jesus is not speaking of a physical, natural water. Rather, He is focusing on something spiritual. The short of the lesson is that whoever drinks from His water has everything he needs spiritually. There is no lack in him. The reason this stands out to me so much is that I weigh this in myself. I think to the beginning statement in Psalm 23.

1The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
-Psalm 23:1

Why shall I not want if the Lord is my Shepherd? The role of the shepherd is first and foremost to provide for the needs of his flock, and then it is to protect them from harm. So what want or need would continue to exist within me? I should have none. If I am truly spiritually sustained by the Lord and by His water, what reason would I have to stray from that and search for another well?

I suppose the lesson that sits with me rests less on the idea that I can be fully satisfied in Him, but rather that I ought to be. It is easy to get distracted in this life. After all, we still have the flesh. But if we walk by the Spirit, will we not ultimately have the very things we are in pursuit of? Perhaps I too, like the Samaritan woman, often look at these spiritual matters from far too much of a naturalistic lens. When we see things naturalistically, we anticipate the end, conclusion, or finality of the thing. Eventually, the well dries up. But not this one. When it comes to these spiritual realities, there is an eternal tone to it. When we have success in our spiritual walks, we should not anticipate it ending.

I remember this being a huge lesson for me when it came to going to church camps. We all knew it was a reality. We would have the "mountain top experience." You go up and get away for a week and get spiritually on fire, then come back down and watch that fire go out. Every year it was a topic of conversation. How do we avoid the mountain top experience? Many would reach the conclusion that it just will happen. In my final year of going I realized a critical failure that we all had going into it. We all expected it to go away. That alone set us up to make sure we had it. We already planned on failing. That year I approached it differently. When I came back down from that camp, I lived like it would never end. Here I am some decade later and it is still there. Sure there have been seasons where that has waxed and waned to some degree or another, but that fire is burning more intensely for me than it has ever before.

The question still weighs on me though... do I still anticipate getting thirsty for another well?

What lesson are you taking from this passage?