What Gives You Life?
What gives you life? Early in John’s Gospel (chapter 4) Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. In Jewish tradition, Jacob had dug this well for his sons so that they would have water for their families and their flocks of sheep and goats in the middle of the summer. They would survive the long, hot summers in that part of the world because they could access this well and others like it scattered across the country. Jesus has an encounter with this Samaritan woman as he waits by Jacob’s well in what’s the mid-north of Israel. As a Jewish man, he was not supposed to talk to a woman from a different tribal group, particularly a Samaritan. The Samaritans worshipped God, but they did not accept the southern Jewish traditions. Jesus simply should not have been talking to her, not even to ask for a drink of water. There was supposed to be a strict separation between Jews and Samaritans. So, she challenges him on this. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Jesus answers 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.”
In Australia, we know the value of fresh water. Indeed, many of Jesus’ metaphors and images are very understandable for us because our climate is similar to that part of the Middle East. But, of course, Jesus is using water as a metaphor for something else. “I will give you life,” is what he is saying to the woman of Samaria. What starts out as a request that the Samaritan woman give Jesus a drink of water quickly turns into Jesus talking about living water, which will bring eternal life. But what is this living water that Jesus is talking about?
I have a challenge for you this week. It’s to ponder the question, “What gives you life?” That is a different question from, “What do you like doing?” Sometimes those two things are the same, of course, but not necessarily. After all, you can enjoy mindless TV shows or video games, but they don’t really give you life.
I chose to give up playing video games a number of years ago because I was addicted to them. I remember buying a new computer in the early 90s and buying a new game to play on it. It was a 2-D version of Duke Nukem! I stayed up until the early hours of the morning playing this game when I was supposed to be sleeping so I could get up and function at university the next day. But I was addicted to this mindless game. Several years later, I totally missed a family event because I was playing a 3-D first-person shooter, Ghost Recon, because, again, I became completely transfixed and addicted to the game. It was shortly after that that I decided I needed to go cold turkey and give up computer games completely.
“What gives you life?” is not necessarily the same thing as, “What you enjoy doing?” I really enjoyed playing computer games, but did they give me life? Absolutely not – in fact, the opposite.
So, what truly gives me life?
My quiet time in the morning gives me life. Four or five days a week, I start my day with 30 minutes of quiet time. I read a short Bible passage, I write a few notes in my journal and then I spend the last 10 minutes or so just sitting still and praying. It’s my mindfulness time. On those days, I am calmer at work and calmer at home. That quiet time gives me life. Exercise gives me life. Fortunately, I really enjoy exercise, so that certainly helps, but it does truly give me life. Music gives me life. My friends and colleagues give me life. My family especially gives me life. A couple of weeks ago our eldest son was home from Melbourne, so we went out to dinner with him and our youngest son and his partner. It was so much fun talking with my adult sons and my youngest son’s partner about just how terrible Adelaide drivers are.
As I look back over my life, another thing that has constantly given me life is the exchange of ideas. One of the real joys for me in the last three years has been teaching first-year university theology as a Year 12 subject. The academic exchange of ideas, and the very process of debating those ideas, brings me to life. I’m pretty fortunate in that respect: I get paid to debate theological ideas with Year 12 students. But whatever gives you life, it’s worth embracing it and celebrating it. I think God likes nothing more than to see us doing that.
The Reverend Dr Theo McCall
School Chaplain
