Diet Coke vs. Living Water

There's nothing like a good Diet Coke in the summertime... or anytime, for that matter.

My son would say this about a Mountain Dew.

Millions in the south would say this about a sweet tea.

But sometimes 8 oz isn't enough. Or a 12 oz can.  Or a 16 oz bottle, for that matter.

And only that beverage of choice will do.

Especially if you are Wallace Bates, who believes that Diet Pepsi is poison to the system.

As the coach's wife, I'm responsible for certain things.  One of my responsibilities includes making sure Wallace is hydrated. This begins before we get to the gym.  Wallace knows what kind of pop every gym in southeastern Kentucky sells in their concession stand, and he will remind me to stop and pick him up a couple of bottles of Diet Coke if the gym sells Pepsi products.

At around 8 minutes before the game, Wallace and his girls head back to the locker room.  If the gym sells Diet Coke products and I haven't bought the pop in advance, I head to the concession stand and get a Diet Coke.

Another Diet Coke is purchased at halftime.

And usually he needs to stop on the way home and get another bottle.

I do this because I know Wallace. I know his routine.  After 14 years of marriage, I know what he expects and anticipate his needs...and the biggest need that he usually has during basketball season is a continuous supply of Diet Coke, clipboards, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

But even if I'm on my A game and have those Diet Cokes ready before he asks, he eventually drinks them up, and gets thirsty again...

Because as wonderful as Diet Coke is, it is temporary.

This week in Limitless Life, we talk about the woman at the well. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible, largely because it gets personal and highlights the love of Jesus for all of us. In this story, Jesus comes to a well where a nameless woman is drawing water.  Jesus is thirsty and asks her to give him a drink.

Let me pause here and retract my earlier statement about there being no drink like a Diet Coke.  If you've ever drunk out of a gourd water straight from a hand-dug well, you've drank a small piece of Heaven.  My great-aunt Emma had a well like this on her porch, and when I was little, I can remember lowering the bucket, pulling it up, slowly, because it was heavy and full of water, and then using a dipper to drink that cool, refreshing water...

The woman needed refreshment like that.  I need refreshment like that.

The Samaritan woman was shocked that Jesus was even speaking to her, much less willing to drink water out of her dipper.

Jesus answered her question with an unclear answer, at least one that didn't make any sense to her.  Basically, he told her she should be asking him for water.

The woman was confused. Jesus was probably dusty, tired-looking.  He had no bucket, no dipper, no way to access water.  But he was promising her living water.

"How?" She asked...

"Whosoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whosoever drinks of the water I shall give him shall never thirst.... a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

The woman was astonished.  Jesus wasn't finished, yet.  The woman in need of refreshment was beat down in life.  She was ashamed, and was at the well in the middle of a hot day, trying to avoid anyone who knew anything about her.

And then she met Jesus, who knew everything about her.  As he told her of her life, she became more amazed.

"Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did; is not this the Christ?"

The thing about Diet Coke is- sometimes it makes me more thirsty, and eventually I run out of substance in that bottle.

The thing about Jesus- sometimes He makes me more thirsty, too... thirsty for His Word, His presence, His acceptance, His love... but He always has more.

Living water.... out of a well that will never run dry.