What No One Will Tell You About the “Thirst”

The “Thirst” is real.

But what no one will tell you about it is that this ain’t new.

There was a joke/meme circling the internet a while back that was actually chuckle-inducing. There are different variations but it’s basically this:

A woman needs a man to have 4 specific qualities for her happiness. She needs a man who knows how to cook, clean, help around the house, and has a job. She needs a man who can make her laugh. She needs a man in whom she can trust and she knows that he only wants to be with her. She needs a man who is good in bed and desires only her. But most importantly, she needs to make sure that these men don’t know about each other.

Thirsty from the Beginning

This joke made me think about the woman at the well. If you’re not familiar with the story in John 4:1-42, this is my summary.

Scene: Jesus is at the well. Samaritan woman walks up to the well. He asks her for a drink of water.

Her: Huh? Why would you ask me for that? You’re not my people.

Jesus: If you knew who I was, you’d give me some water. I have the water that will forever quench your thirst.

Her: Well, let me get some so I don’t have to keep coming back up her.

Him: Go get your husband and come back.

Her: I don’t have a husband.

Him: Yeah, you right. You’ve had 5 husbands and the man you’re with now ain’t yours…

Scene: Samaritan woman runs back to town and witnesses to everyone that she thinks she ran into the Messiah because this guy at the well knows alllll of her business.

The story continues and she ends up being the catalyst for many more people to be saved through Christ.

Thirsty Is, As Thirsty Does

As I continue to reflect on that story, I wonder about the character of the Samaritan woman. Why did she have so many ex-husbands? I’d prefer to think that she’d been widowed a lot…which would be a Lifetime movie in the making…but Jesus’ revelation about the man she was currently with makes me think girlie was a man-eater.

She hopped from man to man, looking for someone to complete her or satisfy her in places where she felt inadequate or incomplete.

I know the feeling.

All through my 20s and into my early 30s, the end goal was just to be married. If he looked halfway decent and made me feel good about myself {or just made me feel good} then I was trying to get wifed-up. If he didn’t fit the bill, it was on to the next one.

I ended up in so many devastating and detrimental relationships because I was searching for something…or someone…to complete me. Instead of finding someone to complete me, I ended more broken than before.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman that He had a life-giving water that would quench her thirst.

There’s a message in that for us today.

We are often very quick to try to find something that will fill a {supposed} void in our life. Men, alcohol, drugs, shopping, partying. These are all vices that we can develop in order to avoid dealing with who we are and our shortcomings, in order to discover who we’re meant to be.

Quenching the Thirst

You don’t have to be thirsty.

The biggest thing that people miss in this story is that you don’t have to find a man or a have a baby or get super involved in everything around you to keep from feeling alone or inadequate. Jesus wants you to know that as long as you truly have Him, YOU. ARE. ENOUGH.

If you’re like me, you constantly dated the same trash type of dude over and over and wondered what you were doing wrong. You wondered what tactic you would have to change in order to get the man you deserved.

When I met my husband, I came to a hard realization. I realized that I wasn’t the woman he deserved to have.

Most importantly, I realized that I wasn’t the woman that I deserved to be.

Remember this: if you don’t know who you are, you’re going to keep attracting…and ending up with…people who make you ask…not in a good way… “how did I end up here?”

Spend time getting to know yourself first before you try to figure out how to force someone else to fit into your world. Before a man deserves you, you deserve the best you that you can be. Quench your thirst by focusing on your relationship with Christ and letting Him show you who you are meant to be.

Are you struggling with quenching your thirst? Is this something that you need support with? Email me or et me know in the comments below!