Tuesday, October 27, 2009

fellowship on the staircase

It was the end of a long, rather frustrating day. I had been home alone most of the day with a sick child and a wild 2-year-old who, in spite of my best efforts, didn't seem to mind beating up on the invalid lounging on the couch, the dog, and anything else that crossed his path. I was more than ready to head for bed. After sinking into a nice doze, I was startled awake and groaned inwardly. Once I miss that first wave of sleep, I have learned I may as well get up and find something to do before trying again.

I stumbled out into the hall and down the steps, stopping to rest at the bottom, head in hands. All the trials of the past day, week, and month seemed to pounce on me at once. Crying out to the Lord was uppermost on my mind, yet I worked to keep God at arms' length. I've never been very good at allowing Him to draw near when my biggest frustration is really with myself. Why would He want to be close to me at a time like this anyway?

Yet God, in His ever-pursuing love, would not let me go. I thought of John 4, the passage I was studying that week, where we read the account of the woman at the well. For the first time ever, I wondered what was going through the woman's mind as she came to draw water in the middle of the day? She was an outcast, despised by Jews for her mixed-up religious heritage but also by her own Samaritans for her immoral lifestyle. Was she feeling empty, frustrated, and wondering if the path her life had taken would ever change? Yet Jesus was not deterred from initiating a conversation with her. In fact, He seemed to have a special place in His heart for people like this, and had come to the well especially to meet with her. (I believe this is why verse 4 reads, "Now He had to go to Samaria.") He said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" Then He went on to draw her into a conversation that would change her life for eternity.

Did He know all about her? Did He know the rejection, the emptiness, the immorality? Absolutely! After offering her living water, piquing her interest in Who He was and what He had to offer, He pinpointed her sin problem. "Go, call your husband and come back." Not only did Jesus know she had no husband, He went on to reveal His knowledge that she had been through a series of husbands and now had a live-in boyfriend. Yet this woman left Jesus' presence not condemned, but set free.

Jesus knows all about us, our failings, our weakness. As I sat on those steps, I sensed the Lord Himself was near and ready to minister to my weary, sin-sick soul. He already knows all about us and draws near to the frustrated, the broken-hearted; the empty, leaky vessels who are the objects of His grace. These are some of His favorite times. He comes to tell us that He has something to offer that will quench our thirst, cleanse our sin, replenish our empty resources, and give life to others. That something is Himself. The next time you feel yourself keeping Him at arms length, will you pause and consider this to be the moment of His pursuing love and allow Him to draw near?

John 4:10 "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."

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