Plant Joy

We are never satisfied. We want more. We want what we can’t have. We want what others have. There is an emptiness in our soul that we try to fill…with stuff, with people, with status. If I only had (fill in the blank), then I would be happy. So then we finally get (fill in the blank), and we’re still not happy. We want something else.

Jesus replied, “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

Jesus said this to a woman who came to a well to fill her water jar. This woman was a Samaritan, and Jews were not supposed to associate with Samaritans. She was not a respectable woman. She came to the well around noontime, the hottest part of the day, to avoid other people who would look down on her. Jesus was sitting by the well and asked her for a drink. When she asked why he would ask her, a Samaritan, for a drink he told her that if she knew who she was speaking to, she would ask him for a drink, and he would give her living water. Her response? “You don’t even have a bucket! Where are you going to get this water?”

After hearing about the living water, she asked for some so that she wouldn’t have to come back to this well anymore. He told her to go get her husband. She said she didn’t have a husband. Jesus said, “You’re right, you have had 5 husbands, and you aren’t married to the man you live with now.” She was shocked. How could this man know her? She assumed he must be a prophet, and as they talked she told him that she knew a Messiah was coming. Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!” She was so excited that she left her water jar by the well and ran back to the village to tell everyone about Jesus.

She was a Samaritan woman of ill-repute, most turned their heads and ignored her when she passed by. Jesus saw her. He knew her, and everything she had done, all of the bad choices she had made, and he chose her to reveal himself to. None of that shame and rejection mattered anymore. She was so filled with joy that she couldn’t contain herself. And all she had to do was ask for a drink.

There is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is fleeting, temporary. Joy is eternal. Possessions, people, status can all make you feel happy for a little while. But it always fades, and then you need something else to take its place, something bigger, something better, something to make you even happier. For those who don’t have much, it only takes something small to trigger happiness. It’s like developing a tolerance to caffeine. When you have it every day, eventually you don’t feel it and you need more and more to get the effect. If you rarely have caffeine, just a small amount will give you that boost.

Joy doesn’t come from external things. True joy comes from your inner being, and the only one who can put it there is Jesus. We can try with all our might to hold onto happiness long enough that it will turn into joy, that we will have a joyful life. But eventually something goes wrong and the happiness is gone, it slips right through our fingers. If you ask him, Jesus will plant joy in your heart. And once it takes root, it cannot be killed. It will fill that empty space in your soul until it is overflowing. And the roots will go so deep that even if the flower fades from time to time, just a little water will perk it right up. Life will send drought, cold, wind and darkness to destroy the flower. The water that Jesus brings is “a fresh, bubbling spring within”. When we have that living water within us, the roots of our joy will never die, and the flower will always return.