Living Water

I've started reading through the book of Jeremiah. I generally haven't been an Old Testament kind of girl, but my interested was peaked not so long ago when I met with Helene Dallaire, Associate Professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary.

Since speaking with her, I've been pondering the literature of the Old Testament and the story that unfolds amongst the Hebrew people. I'm considering studing Old Testament...whenever I actually start an MDiv or Masters in Biblical Studies.

As I was reading the second chapter of Jeremiah this morning, I couldn't help but feel as if Jeremiah's words to the Israelites were spoken to my heart as well. I particularly like verse 13, which says,

"My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

In this first part of Jeremiah, the prophet is sharing God's thoughts to the Israelites regarding their behavior, primarily the fact that rather than trusting the living God who has brought them powerfully out of Egypt, they continue to choose other gods, gods described as worthless.

As I read this verse, I had to ask the age-old question, "Why?" Why, when a living, powerful God has been evident in the life of a community or an individual, does the heart so easily turn back to trusting something false and worthless? Why do we exchange the glory of God for the nakedness of self-reliance or the temporary feeling of control?

I think the question boils down to the fact that trusting God in the midst of real-life circumstances moves from a theoretical exercise to one of stark reality. Reality can be hurtful, painful and feel very much outside our control. Our human tendency is to panic, to grasp for that control. The immediate response is to move away from a cosmic, supernatural God to one that we can more easily (at least in our very human perception) control.

In the verse above, God is saying to his people, through Jeremiah, that they have committed two sins. They have turned away from their source and then attempted to dig their own well. They want to provide for themselves. But, by attempting to provide for themselves, they bask in their own brokenness. They drink from damaged, leaky containers.

Of course, when I read this verse, I immediately thought of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman. John 4 tells the story of Jesus asking this woman, a reviled Samaritan, for a drink from her cup. She responds with a question, why would Jesus, a Jew, drink from her cup, tainted as it was from her religious, cultural background. Jesus responds by saying that if she knew who she was talking to, she would ask him and he would give living water. Their reparte continues for a few verses until Jesus says, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink 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." (TNIV)

The question, I think, is one of Lordship. When I try to dig my well, to control and provide for myself, I will have water, but from a leaky container. It will take work and my thirst will not be met, the water will be stale. When I take my hands off and choose to allow God to work in my life, there is the promise of a spring of living water. There is a richness of refreshing in this image. Cool, fresh, clear water. Water that "wells" up. It can't be stopped by holding your hand over it. It will gush. Theoretically, I think of an ideal life. Practically, I know this stream will look different. There is no promise of an ideal life. There is this promise of living water. No longer am I drinking from that damaged container, but there is welling up inside me water to meet my thirst.

I don't have three steps to how this works or what it looks like in practice. I do offer this prayer, "Lord, teach us to drink from your living water, from your wholeness rather than our own brokenness."