Listen

Jesus responded, “If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living water.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty and will never need to come here to draw water!”

John 4:10-15

Think

As part of our tendency to fear people who are different, our first idea is to see what they lack. “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.” Like the woman at the well, though, such a position can cause us to miss what’s really important. How often do we assume that others can’t reach deeper into God’s love or reveal more to us about who God is?

But sometimes we can catch ourselves, too. We name our fears – why we’re hesitant to trust others – and seek the living water of God’s love found anew in a familiar stranger. Who has surprised you with a new glimpse of God’s love recently?

The truth is we have to be somewhere in the middle: patiently cautious to protect what we know to be true and hopefully optimistic to embrace God’s new day. Consider how you might find that middle ground today.

Daniel Potter

Pray

God, show me your love in new ways today. Help me to set aside my fears of what’s different and embrace the new ways you’re speaking to us. I do so in the knowledge that your love is greater than anything I might see or know. It is a living water that brings us into eternal life. Amen.

Go

Guide me in your love today, O God.

Awaken my mind,

Strengthen my feet,

Empower my heart,

Enliven my spirit.

Lead me in the way of Jesus!

Amen.