I remember a time when I was seriously thirsty. I was exhausted after a long day’s hike on the Appalachian Trail. I had camped near what my map said was a reliable water source. The spring was dry. The story is longer but it ends well. The Lord mercifully took care of me by sending some fellow hikers along who shared their supply of water and Gatorade. What a relief!
Jesus was tired and thirsty when he and his disciples stopped near a town in Samaria. The disciples went to buy food and Jesus waited beside Jacob’s well, the village water supply.
Presently, a woman came to draw water from the well. Jesus crossed two cultural barriers and asked her if she would give him a drink. She was a woman and she was a Samaritan. John 4:9 makes clear that traditionally, Jews did not associate with Samaritans. So Jesus defied custom when he, as a Jewish man, asked her, a Samaritan woman, for a drink.
She was puzzled and asked Jesus, “How can you ask me for a drink?” He answered 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” (John 4:10). “Living water” refers to a flowing spring, a never-ending, abundant supply.
Then the Lord went further and said that anyone who drinks from the water that he gives “will never thirst” (John 4:13). It will be a spring that wells up to eternal life. To “drink” is to believe in Jesus. As he said on another occasion,
“If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, streams of living water shall flow from within him” (John 7:37).
A conversation ensued which resulted in Jesus telling her that he is the Messiah, the Christ of God. He is the Savior who has the divine authority to promise eternal life. As a result of this conversation, she and many others put their faith in Jesus as “the Savior of the world” (John 4:39-42).
The famous British journalist Malcomb Muggeridge described his conversion to faith in Christ in terms of receiving this living water. Formerly a Marxist, a cynic and a skeptic he achieved worldwide notoriety for his pungent critiques of Western civilization. His faith in Jesus Christ transformed him into a Christian apologist and outspoken witness. Later in his life he wrote:
“I may, I suppose, regard myself, or pass for being a relatively successful man. People occasionally stare at me on the streets — that’s fame. I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for admission to the higher slopes of the Inland Revenue — that’s success. Furnished with money and a little fame even the elderly, if they care to, may partake of trendy diversions — that’s pleasure. It may happen once in a while that something I said or wrote was sufficiently heeded for me to persuade myself that it represented a serious impact upon our time — that’s fulfillment. Yet I say to you, and I beg you to believe me, multiply these tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing — less than nothing, a positive impediment — measured against one draught of that living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty, irrespective of who or what they are.”
Pastor Randy Faulkner
Try to imagine the morning in the mountains. Stillness. Silence. No sounds except the whisper of the breeze stirring the leaves overhead, or raindrops striking the tent, or sometimes the songbirds waking each other. In that environment I began each day with my Bible reading and prayer while still in my sleeping bag. This was followed by the simple pleasure of morning coffee in the coolness of the dawn.
The trail was mapped and built by volunteers in the 1930s. It became part of the National Trail System established by Congress in 1968. In cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, it is maintained by regional clubs of volunteers who are members of the Appalachian Trail Conference, headquartered in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.
Friends have asked lots of questions about the hike. Did it rain? Yes. What did you do? I put on rain gear and a rain cover for my pack and kept walking. The sound of rain on one’s tent is a wonderful inducement to sound sleep, the deep sleep of pure exhaustion.
What did you eat? Instant oatmeal and coffee in the morning and a dehydrated meal reconstituted with boiling water in the evening. A tiny lightweight stove boiled the water. I had decided the camp stove I had was too heavy. No, there was no need for a campfire. I munched on snacks of jerky, energy bars, and nuts during the day. It is very important to stay hydrated and every hiker is aware of how much water he will need for the day.