Have you ever been really thirsty? Enough so that you’d drink almost anything you could find? It might be a little hard to picture here in the cold winter, but if you remember summer heat, it’s a little easier to picture those times when your body is just screaming out for some moisture. I’m not sure why this is, but let’s just admit that we all picture that image of a man in threadbare clothing, crawling on his stomach through desert sand: WATER… Water…
When a sheep is thirsty, it will do the same thing. If the shepherd doesn’t show it clean, clear water to drink, it will drink from any mud puddle it can find, without regard for how diseased and parasite infested it may be. We’ve discussed before how short-sighted this animal can be.
But like it or not, that’s why they’re such a perfect metaphor for us. Not in actual drinks that keep us hydrated. Between the Gatorade and the bottled water, we’ve got that pretty well in hand. But the writer of the 23rd Psalm isn’t just telling us to keep hydrated. They have something deeper in mind.
We humans have a deep hunger for meaning. And in the words of a favorite songwriter of mine, “you can call it the Devil, call it the big lie. Call it a fallen world, whatever it is, it ruins almost everything we try.” We’ll look almost everywhere for the answer before turning to our Creator.We think things or experiences or “bucket lists” will bring us satisfaction. We smile when we think how as kids, we think candy or toys will surely bring us eternal happiness. Many teens are certain that a car or a girlfriend or graduation will finally bring the happiness and soul satisfaction they want so much. But we adults aren’t a whole lot different. Instead of candy or toys, we might think a better job or a bigger house or more children will fully satisfy. But they don’t.
Way back in 1670, French philospher Blaise Pascal understood this. In his book Pensees, he wrote:
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”
Let me share a story that might make this a little clearer. Keith Green was a well-known Christian musician in the 1970s. At a very young age, he showed immense musical promise.
His parents made sure he learned how to play guitar and piano. He liked piano, but got bored playing the long classical pieces. Then his grandfather, who started Jaguar Records, taught Keith how to play chords on the piano… and that was the end of classical music for him. From that moment on Keith began writing and singing his own songs. He was 6 years old at the time.
At 11, Keith signed a recording contract with Decca Records.
They planned to make Green a teen idol, regularly getting him featured in fan magazines such as Teen Scene and on television shows like The Jack Benny Program and The Steve Allen Show. He was a guest on the television game show I've Got a Secret Time magazine even ran an article about aspiring young rock-'n'-roll singers that referred to Green as a "prepubescent dreamboat". But even then, the big success he thought would make life worthwhile eluded him, and as Donny Osmond came along, Keith Green was forgotten.
By 14, Keith felt like a total failure, a 'has been'--- which was difficult for someone who had been groomed all his life to be a pop star. He was 15 the first time he ran away from home and for years he looked for musical adventure and spiritual truth. He began smoking marijuana, and used psychedelic drugs in hopes of finding spiritual truth. He became interested in eastern mysticism and the "free love" culture. But after experiencing what Green described as a "bad trip", he abandoned drug use and became interested in philosophy and theology. Then when he had nearly given up hope, Keith found the truth he had been looking for. His quest for stardom had ended. Now his songs reflected the absolute thrill of finding Jesus and seeing his own life radically changed. In one of his most enduring songs, he described this time by writing:
We’re getting short on time, but let me finish by pointing us to Jesus’ interaction with a Samaritan woman at a well in John 4:7. We don’t have time this morning to talk about all that’s going on here, but we can’t really talk about thirst for God without it:
“ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 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.) 10 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.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.”
Well, sign me up! Never thirst again? How do we get this living water?
Well, it turns out that we do it the same way Keith Green did. The same way Blaise Pascal did in the 1600s. And the same way that woman at that far away, long ago well did. We turn to Jesus and ask him for it. We lay down our pride, and our self-reliance, and the fantasy that blinded us, and finally let his love break through. Let’s pray for that right now.
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