A new way to grow spiritually

 
You will remember that in the last post on The Story of Jesus, a Samaritan woman learns from Jesus who he really is and rushes back to town to tell everyone. Just before she left, the disciples had returned from town where they had gone for food. They were surprised to see their leader talking with a woman of mixed race. It appears that Jesus wasn’t interested in the food they had brought back (the text says they “urged him to eat). But he had just watched a woman drink of the “living water” and, uninterested in food for the body, said, “I have a source of nourishment you know nothing about.” The disciples wondered whether someone else had given him something to eat, so he answered, “It’s by doing what God wants that gives me the strength I need” (John 4:32-34).  
       As the physical body is nourished by the food that gives it strength, so also does the inner man require the kind of “food” that nourishes it. Regular food gives strength for the physical, so what is it that gives strength to the spiritual?  Obviously it is not meat and potatoes, but that which will nourish the spirit. What the disciples didn’t understand is that Jesus had just been able to provide a woman with a new understanding of what, in the long run, she really needed, and that was spiritual, not physical.
       It is so obvious that we need food for our body, but less clear that our inner man needs its “food.” And what’s a good menu for the inner man? Obviously it is spiritual. Believers know that their spiritual part is helped by Bible study, prayer, group experiences with others, an occasional retreat, but the point Jesus would make (I believe) if he were writing this column would be our deep need for an intimate relationship with him. People live together at various levels. We are generally aware of others when we are involved in standard household activities, closer when after dinner we relax and share the day with one another.  But there are also those special times when the sharing is deep and moving. And I find no problem with that balance, but when the intimate is excluded there remains an ever-deepening void.
       And so it is with our relationship with God. Frank Laubach’s challenge to think of God every minute (see his great little book The Game With Minutes is a admirable goal, but he smiles and says, “Don’t play it unless you have a sense of humor.” That said, it’s comforting to know that God is always at hand and that we are strengthened from reading scripture, from sharing biblical truth with one another, etc. The only thing now lacking is that personal deep awareness of the reality that he is actually right here with me, guiding my heart and mind with such tender care, and deepening our relationship. These are the special times. I believe the Samaritan woman was on the path between talking with Jesus and suddenly realizing who he was and that he wanted her to drink of a different kind of water. He offered “living water,” and he still does. He says to us, “Here, refresh yourself with this. It’s living and will meet that thirst that lies so deep down inside.”
       The disciples kept urging him to take some of the food they had brought, but he had a further lesson for them. They needed to understand that it is by our “doing what God wants that we receive the strength we need.”  A life of joyful obedience is no drain on the inner man; just the opposite. The more we get outside of ourselves and in love meet the needs of others, the more we will be strengthened. It’s a win-win situation. And isn’t that just like God!