daily java

Daily Java:

Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. (John 4:13-14)

1969. I was in the army in basic training in El Paso. We were walking through the part of New Mexico that was close to El Paso and part of White Sands Missile Range. It was hot and we were walking, going from nowhere to nowhere.

The drill sergeants wouldn’t let us have anything to drink. There were two reasons for this. One was that they were trying to teach us to go without water. The other is that they were mean and cruel pieces of trash that liked to torment us.

Or that’s what I thought at the time.

When we finally had a break and sat for a few minutes, we got to drink from our green plastic canteens (that was a stupid design). When we finally got a drink, it was the best hot green plastic water I had ever tasted. In fact, it was the best water I ever tasted. It tasted great.

I could have drunk anything at the moment, but it was water my body was craving. I needed water. Not pop, not lemonade, not beer, not whiskey, not even Gatorade. I needed water.

It is the same with our lives. We get so thirsty in life for something and many times we don’t even know what it is. We try work, we try stuff that we can buy, we try sex, we try money – and when it comes down to it, we are miserable.

That is because we are made to serve God, to love him and to be loved by him. When we put other stuff into our lives instead of him, it just doesn’t work. It may be a temporary relief and it may feel just right for the moment. But in the long run, it doesn’t work.

We have what one guy called a “God-shaped vacuum” in our lives. It is a hole in our souls that cannot be filled with anything else but God. Only God will fit the hole.

That is because we were made in the image of God, in his pattern. That means that he is the only One that will complete us.

We can try everything else – kind of like the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament did – but we will find, like he did, that it is all worthless. Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless! he says in the book. Nothing satisfied him except God and his word.

Only the water he gives – his life, his word, his purpose, his meaning – will make us happy. Everything else will leave us empty, wanting something else. Twinkies and junk food never substitutes for steak. Pop never substitutes for water. Sex never substitutes for love. And nothing substitutes for God.

We want the real thing. And the water of life Jesus gives is that real thing.