Chaplains Corner: Look inside for the answer

I remember years ago feeling unhappy. I thought about the boring job I had, then I considered the bullying boss who irritated me immensely and I also wondered about where I was living and how that affected me.

I came to the conclusion that if I were to change my job, my boss and my home then my mood would lift, and I would get out of the pit I was in. I continued with this line of thinking for some years until someone said to me: “If you move jobs or home just to get away from your problems you will be taking those same problems with you. Far better to work through your problems where you are now and then move on!”

Have you ever read the story about Jesus meeting a woman at a well? She was a moral outcast among her people.

When Jesus interacted with her, he deliberately reached across all sorts of barriers of the time: race, gender, cultural, and moral. But what is most interesting thing about this encounter is the words Jesus spoke to her, “If you knew who I was, you would ask me for living water; and if you drink that water, you will never thirst again” (John’s Gospel chapter 4).

Jesus is using metaphor to explain that he can provide something for her that is as basic and necessary spiritually as water is to us physically. He is talking about her finding a love unlike any she’s ever known. Hope and inner peace that is not dependent on what’s happening outside of her.

What about you, what will make you happy? What really gives your life satisfaction that lasts? Is your answer something outside of you?

Some of us have our hopes set on romantic love, career, sport, health and fitness, education, looking good, status, or perhaps politics or a social cause. Whatever it is that makes you say, “if I have that’, if I get there, then I know I will have significance and the security I need”- it’s likely something outside of you.

The Good News paper this month has a story about Abigail Edmonds who achieved her dream of competing in the 2012 Olympics(kayak) but found she needed more than that. After 2012 at university several failed relationships made her aware of her selfishness.

She asked God to help her and says, “It remains an amazing sense of relief to know that God is with me. He is changing my character, and at the end of it all this friendship will continue in heaven.”

Jesus’ offer of “living water” and inner change to the woman at the well is for you too, will you take it?