Hunger Continued

A friend of mine posted a comment on facebook in response to the last post, "Hunger Filled," which prompted me to write this quick follow-up. I don't think I will come up with all of the answers in this little tid-bit, but I figured it'd be worth exploring a little more.

The comment my friend made had to do with the difference among types of being filled: emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I think the following passage can provide us further insight into ways of being filled.


"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.'

The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.' " -John 4:6:15

A few observations:
1. Jesus was legitimately tired, and he asked for a real drink of water. I think Jesus was legitimately asking for something to quench his thirst. Simple enough, yes?

2. Jesus is able to legitimize our need for physical sustenance while simultaneously pointing to the need for quenching our spiritual thirst. You can see this even more so if you continue reading the parts of the passage that I left off.

3. Jesus is holistic. He cares about every part of our lives, physically, spiritually, emotionally. If you read further in this passage, you'll see much of the spiritual component. We've already seen the emotional in Luke, where Jesus is saying, "Blessed are you who weep, for you will be comforted." And there are other instances of Jesus multiplying bread for people to eat, his first miracle in which he turned water into wine, and so forth. Jesus cares about all of our needs. And he can meet them all. Question is, will we let him?

I can say for myself that it's hard for me to trust in a God I don't see, who I don't hear audibly, and whose ways of speaking to me seem very sporadic and very creative. I'm a creative person but sometimes I don't want creative speech! I'd rather have it spoon-fed to me easily where I can immediately understand it. It's much easier for me to talk to a friend or get on facebook or email and try to get my needs met that way than it is to take a moment and ask for Jesus to speak. 'Cause he's so foreign in some ways. But though those other things fill to varying degrees (facebook very little, in my opinion), he's the one that fills the most, when I get it. So how can I get it? How can we get more Jesus?

I'll let you know when I found out.