I'd Be Happy If... - Sharon Jaynes

My husband, Steve, loves golf. When a salesman invited him to be his guest on one of Charlotte’s most prestigious courses, he jumped at the chance. He plays mostly public courses, so this was a real treat.

As they drove their cart up to the sixth tee, Steve scanned the tree-lined fairway dressed in pink, purple, and fuchsia azaleas in full bloom. Six multimillion-dollar mansions surrounded the green. Swimming pools sat motionless, manicured lawns lay weedless, and $50,000 cars were parked in the driveways. Then Steve’s host began to unfold the stories behind those walls.

“See that first house? Those folks are separated. The wife had two affairs, and her husband finally left. And that second house? The wife has caught her husband with a prostitute twice. She wants to divorce him, but she’s recently inherited ten million dollars from her father and doesn’t want her husband to get any of the money. She’s trying to figure out the best way to get out of the marriage and keep her money.

“And that third house, the one with the yard that looks somewhat unkempt? That couple also got a divorce, and their house has been for sale for seven months.” (Yes, the guy was gossiping. Not just a problem with the fairer sex.) Steve was struck with the broken lives surrounding him. Later he told me, “These were people who had achieved everything they thought would ever make them happy, and they were miserable.”

“Do you think they wanted more?” I asked.

“No,” he replied. “I think they wanted something different, but they don’t even know what that different is.”

The Samaritan woman at the well we meet in John chapter 4 had the same problem. She wanted something different than what she had. She was thirsty and didn’t even know what she was thirsty for.

We all come into the world thirsty. From the time my son made his first cry in the delivery room, he began rooting around for something to drink. God planned it that way.

We also come into the world spiritually thirsty. From the time we are cut loose from our mother’s nourishing umbilical cord, we begin our journey to discovering the living water to satisfy the soul. Oh, we don’t know it yet, but God has placed the desire for something more in each and every one of His image bearers. Until we meet Jesus at the well, we fumble about trying to quench the God-given thirst with anything and anyone who offers temporary relief.
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But it’s just that…temporary.

Jesus explained, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)

It is only in a relationship with Jesus that we discover what author Peter Kreeft called, “the ultimate purpose for which we were created, the meeting and marriage between ourselves and God…the highest and holiest and happiest hope of the human heart, the thing we were all born hungering (and thirsting) for, hunting for, longing for.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been like Samaritan woman—drinking from many shallow streams. Maybe not the same shallow stream, but unsatisfying ones none-the-less. And all those shallow streams left me thirsty for more—or at least for something different. Jesus offers us the same water He offered her: freely flowing, resplendently refreshing. Water that bubbles up from the indwelling Holy Spirit and quenches every thirst, washes away every sin, and flows into every nook and cranny of our beings.

I live on a lake. I can look at the lake, swim in the lake and even stand in the lake…and still die of thirst. The only way for the water to enter my system is to scoop it up and drink.

Likewise, we can read about Jesus, listen to sermons about Jesus, and even believe that He was a good man. But until we actually believe that Jesus is God’s Son, the Messiah, who died for our sins and rose again…until we partake of Jesus and make Him Lord of our lives, we will remain thirsty.

I’ll be happy if… What would you put at the end of that sentence? If I had a man? A baby? A bigger house? A smaller waistline? If it’s anything other than a personal, growing, intimate relationship with Jesus we’ll have a water bucket riddled with holes.

Today, let’s fill our buckets to the brim and drink deeply. And friend, I am honored to sit by the well with you today.

Leave a comment and tell me where you’re reading from. I’ll pick one name and send a free copy of The 5 Dreams of Every Woman…and How God Longs for Fulfill Them.

Congratulations to Daniel White, the winner of Glynnis Whitwer’s book, Doing Busy Better!