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There is a journey that each of us take most every day. It is a journey to a “well” where we go to meet a need in our lives. Its purpose may be to fill an emotional emptiness, provide mental stimulation, meet a spiritual need, or satisfy a physical hunger. The needs we feel may vary and the places we go to appease them may look different, but we all have a “well” to which we go.

Sometimes we go to our well not even recognizing what our need truly is.  We go to meet a perceived need, when in reality our need is something entirely different. It may be a need that we openly acknowledge and embrace, or it may be one we deny and reject. It may be a need that leads to our being built up, or it may be a need that leads to our being torn down. Whatever it is, we think the well to which we are going will meet the need.

Such was the case with the Samaritan woman we read about in the Gospel of John.(1) She had come to a well with an empty bucket, just like she had many times before. She came because she needed water. Her physical need is what brought her there, but her emotional need is what dictated the timing of her journey.

Her life was hard, filled with disappointment. She had been married five times before, having possibly been widowed and on other occasions divorced. She was now living with a man who was not her husband, which would have been scandalous in that day. But she no longer cared. She was seeking love and fulfillment wherever she thought she could find it. However, every attempt only led to more rejection and greater emptiness.

She was an outcast in her own village, and probably felt as if she didn’t have a friend in the world. She came to the well at the sixth hour of the day – at the noon hour. The busy time at the well was always first thing in the morning, when others collected the water they would need for the day. But not this woman, she came when she knew the others would not be there.

And what’s more – she came to a well that was out of her way. Archaeologists tell us that her village – Sychar – had its own well right there in the village. But she had come to the well outside of the village in order to avoid running into anyone who might recognize her. She was tired of their hurting remarks and their judgmental looks. She came to the well wounded – cut to the heart by the rejection she had time and again experienced. She came to the well living a life of desperation – shutting out the world around her on the outside and raging against it on the inside. And though she came to the well with an empty bucket needing to be filled with water, she also came with questions for which she had no answers. She knew the religious teachings of her day, but the list of rules and commands had left her frustrated and empty. She had come to a place in her life that she no longer believed there was an answer to the pain she felt.

As she approached the well, she saw a Man. She looked at Him warily. He was a stranger to her. On closer inspection, she realized He was a Galilean. And she knew Galileans, like all Jews, despised Samaritans, and vice versa. She expected this Galilean would deride her just like all those before Him had done. But instead, He did something that astounded her. He spoke to her – not with words of ridicule or disdain; rather, He asked her for a favor – a drink from the well. Surprisingly, His speech and demeanor did not reflect arrogance or contempt; instead His words and manner evidenced humility and compassion. He spoke to her in a way that no man had ever spoken to her before.

“Perhaps He is a ‘religious’ man,” she thought. She had encountered rabbis and pharisees before, and they had been just as cruel and self-centered as the rest. But this Man was different. He seemed to be well-meaning. He offered to give her water – what He called “living water.” But He had nothing with which to draw from the well, so how could He possibly help her?

But as He continued to speak, His eyes and His words told her He could see right into her heart. Here was a Man who knew everything about her. Here was a Man that wanted to give her life – not the miserable existence that the world called life – but a life of integrity, a life of purpose, and a life that was abundant. Suddenly her eyes were opened, and she saw the Master for who He truly was. She saw and heard the Father and His love revealed through this One – this stranger, this rabbi – the Messiah.

Look at the exchange that occurred at the well that day. The Samaritan woman came with an empty bucket, but left connected to the endless spring of Living Water. She came rejected by most of those around her, but left accepted by Almighty God Himself. She came wounded, but left having been made whole. She came living a life of desperation, but left overflowing with hope. She came filled with questions, but left knowing the One who had all the answers.

Now don’t misunderstand, when she left the well that day, many of the people in the village still probably treated her rudely. She was still poor. The circumstances of her life were still hard. But now a love relationship with God gave meaning to her life. She knew He loved her, and by His grace, she was His child. Nothing and no one could take that away. And she was so full of joy that she forgot all about her waterpot and ran into the village to tell others about the One she had encountered at the well. And we read that many others believed in Jesus because of her witness.

Each of us are headed to our “well” today. We’re headed to a place to meet our need – whatever that need might be. But we would do well to look to the One who stands directly in front of us. He knows our need better than we do. He wants to fill our lives to overflowing. And He is the only One who is able to do so.

Let’s be careful that we don’t leave the well with the same old empty bucket we’ve been carrying around, filled only with those things that won’t last. The Father has ordered our steps to encounter Jesus. Let’s allow Him to fill us up, make us whole, and give us hope for the journey. And as we journey on with Him to the next well, let’s allow Him to use us to point the ones we meet there to the One who can fill their bucket as well!

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This post is adapted from Walking With The Master, chapter 10, entitled “A Journey to the Well.” This fourth book in the Lessons Learned In The Wilderness series is available through Amazon in print or for your e-reader. Click HERE for more information on how you can obtain your copy of the book.

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(1)  John 4:3-7, 28-30, 39 (NLT)

So Jesus left Judea to return to Galilee. He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually He came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Please give Me a drink." …The woman left her water jar beside the well and went back to the village and told everyone, "Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?" So the people came streaming from the village to see Him. …Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, "He told me everything I ever did!"

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