I was doing so well about posting at least once a week and then fell off the face of the planet for a minute there so sorry about that. I couldn't do anything but sit down and write about this crazy revelation that I received earlier today. Here we go....
Okay so most of us know the story of the woman at the well who meets and talks to Jesus. If you don't know the story, it is found in John 4:4-26. In that story we see Jesus ask the woman for a drink from the well and in the process basically completely reads her mail about her very personal life. He tells her that she has had five husbands and the man she is with now is not her husband. I think most of the time what gets harped on about this story is the fact that the woman had been with so many men and was sleeping with one that she wasn't even married to. I totally get that that would need addressed or Jesus wouldn't have mentioned it to begin with but I think we need to glean something beyond that surface level idea.
I would like to propose that we change the label that has been given to this woman through that scripture reference: the adulterous woman and instead call her: the searching woman. She was searching for something she still had not found. How many of us can really, truly relate to her? I know I can! I may not have a long list of men trailing in my wake but I certainly have quite a bit to account for from my past and even some in my present (hopefully less of it in my future). I think we like to pigeon-hole addictions to one thing or another that seem so over-the-top when really ANYTHING that we are using to fill a void in our life is exactly that: an addiction.
See, I think in looking at her story, the searching woman might have even been looking to hook up with another man at the well because she wasn't satisfied, yet again, with the one she was currently with. The cycle in her life of using people until they no longer made her FEEL better was just that: a cycle. There is no end in a cycle. It just continues and continues until something abruptly pulls you out of it.
Most of us have experienced this in different areas of our lives that don't involve people but rather "objects of obsession." Those things could be drugs/alcohol, food, music, shopping, and many other activities. Really, honestly, an "object of obsession" is anything that keeps us coming back for more because we FEEL better when it's around but it never truly MAKES us better. It's just a filler.
Sometimes I think our society gets so caught up in helping people feel there feelings and not suppressing them that it allows them to continue in this cyclical space where THAT'S what's being portrayed as healthy. I do not disagree that allowing yourself to feel what you are feeling is amazing but then what? If you are still having those feelings years later and having to go back to the same songs, habits, and substances to get you on the other side of feeling better than what has truly been accomplished? I propose NOTHING. So.....what do you do to change that?
RENEW YOUR MIND DAILY! (Romans 12:2)
It's a proven fact that a new habit can be formed when performed every day for 31 days in a row. Pavlov's dog was trained to hear a bell and do a specific action. Our minds are more advanced than a dog's mind and are changing constantly! So what are you putting into yours that will change the framework that your thoughts are built around? The Word says that we should be guarding our hearts and minds all the time and that especially happens by guarding our gates: eyes and ears. Out of the heart the mouth speaks so if what is in your heart (because it's what you have focused on) is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable that's what will flow from the place where life and death is brought forth from (Luke 6:45, Philippians 4:8, Proverbs 18:21)!
So what can you look at in your own life today that makes you FEEL better in the moment and even sometimes shortly afterwards but nothing changes and you HAVE TO keep coming back for more?
Don't ever stop your search for The One, JESUS, who satisfies AND keeps you coming back for more just because you can't get enough of Him! He is truly the well that never runs dry!
