Last night, my community explored Jesus’ encounter with a foreign whore. We watched as Jesus broke every imaginable cultural rule by initiating an unacceptable relationship. We watched as He tenderly, yet surgically, helped her to realize her soul craving for Him that had played out in dangerous, life-threatening ways.

A word on soul-craving:
I have a bias that God created in each of us a soul craving that He alone can satisfy. This soul craving for Him includes belonging, wholeness, freedom, intimacy, adventure… A part of being human means that I choose to play out that soul craving for Him in more immediate ways that tend to be harmful, destructive, even life-threatening.

That’s what I see in the John 4 encounter. The woman had had six (or more) sexual partners which means she either began thirsty, ended thirsty, or (likely) both. She’s played out this soul craving in such destructive ways that she can’t even recognize the solution to her soul craving sitting at Jake’s Well with her.

I wonder which person we resonate with…

As a Jesus follower, I’ve come to resonate with both. I am the unacceptable whore that God initiates an unacceptable relationship with: that’s grace. As a result, I have become sent to other Jake’s Wells to initiate unacceptable relationships with others: that’s being an extension of the grace I have received.

As our training time came to a close last night, we were invited to drink deep from a basin of water intended to symbolize our soul craving for Jesus being satisfied by Him. We all had little Dixie cups to draw the water with.

After the gathering, my little girl ran up to me with her Dixie cup, picked up my open water bottle and dumped the almost full bottle all over herself, my Bible & shoes, and the floor. In so doing, she happened to also get a Dixie cup full of water.

“I’m wet.” she said, very matter of factly.
“Yes you are.” I replied, relishing the significance of this moment.
“Drink it?” she asked.
“Drink deep, little one.” I responded.