Many years ago, a weary traveler hiked for miles across the desert with the hot sun beating down on him. His water supply was gone and he knew that if he didn’t find water soon to quench his thirst, he would surely die. In the distance, he spotted a deserted cabin which gave him hope that maybe water was to be found there. He made his way to the cabin and discovered an old well. He frantically pumped the handle of the well to draw water, but all that came from the pump was dust.
Then he noticed a tin can tied to the pump, with a note inside. The note said, “Dear stranger: This pump is all right as of June 1982. I put a new sucker washer in it, and it should last for quite a few years. But the washer dries out and the pump needs to be primed. Under the white rock, I buried a jar of water, out of the sun and corked up. There’s enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about one-fourth of the water into the pump and let her soak for a minute to wet the leather washer. Then pour the rest quickly and pump hard. You’ll get water. Have faith. This well has never run dry. When you get watered up, fill the bottle and put it back as you found it for the next stranger who comes this way.”
Would you have poured the water into the pump or drunk the water? Why?
Are you thirsty? Are you tired?
For many people, Camp Luther is a place to be spiritually refreshed. It’s a place people come to recharge their faith. And that’s good. We love being that place of renewal and encouragement.
Because you know what? As a culture, we’re not really all that good at resting.
We’re really good at prioritizing, and making lists, and getting stuff done. And how easy is it, when you’re making those lists, when you’re getting stuff done, to start to think, “Yeah, I know reading my Bible is important, I know having a morning quiet time is important, I know those family devotions are important, I know going to Bible study and to church and all this other stuff is important, but I just don’t have…time.” And for a while it works. But eventually, the well starts to run dry.
Because if you try to dip into just your own strength, no matter how hard you try, eventually, it’s going to be empty.
But the incredible thing is, as Christians, we don’t have to do that. We don’t have to do it on our own.
John 4:5-14
So Jesus came to a town in Samaria. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “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.”
Sir,” the woman said, “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, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Living water. That’s the gift of God for us through Christ Jesus our Lord.
So continually drink from the living water. Put your hope and your trust in the source of that water, rather than in your own strength. Drink that living water through time in the Word, through personal devotions, through moments spent with the God who created you, through community in the Body of Christ. Each and every day. Don’t let your well run dry.
Lord, it’s so easy to get caught up in the hassles and stresses of this world that we forget to go back to you, the author and bringer of life. Help us to bring it to you.