Back to the Well

Growing up on a farm, I quickly learned the difference between a cistern and a well. Our family's deep well, for decades fed steadily by underground springs, never failed to yield clear, cold, refreshing water. Our cistern, on the other hand, was a tank filled with rainwater. Its water was less pure, and the cistern sometimes went dry in times of drought.

In the arid Middle East, freshwater wells fed by underground springs were highly valued in the days of Isaac (Genesis 26:12-33), Moses (Exodus 2:15-17), and David (2 Samuel 29:15).

People dug cisterns too, but even the best ones—those hewn out of solid rock—tended to crack and leak, and the water in them soon grew stagnant. So the Lord illustrated the aimlessness and errors of his people by saying, "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (Jeremiah 2:13).

Where can you turn when you thirst for a meaningful life? Some try to drink from the dry, broken cistern of atheism. Tell people that there is no God—that life is a cruel joke, human beings are evolutionary accidents, and Heaven is a pipe-dream—and you end up with widespread emptiness and despair. We thirst for something more.

Nor will we find satisfaction in the stagnant water of secular humanism, which tries to replace God with human reason and insists that all ethical standards are situational and relative. If we were not created in God's image, there's no basis for human dignity—and we're left with moral chaos without God's standards of right and wrong.

Another leaky cistern, consumerism, will leave us dissatisfied as well. Empty indeed is the person who sees no purpose in life but to earn and spend, to buy and sell, to use and be used. Material things quickly pass away, along with the joy of owning them.

Nor can we quench our spiritual thirst by drinking from the broken cisterns of denominationalism. Those who thirst for God find no refreshment in sectarian squabbles and religious opinions carved by human hands. God calls us to a far higher purpose than merely defending our traditions and carrying on church business as usual.

Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37). No one knows more about purposeful living than Jesus does. At age 12, he was in his Father's house doing his Father's business (Luke 2:49). When tempted by Satan, he refused to be sidetracked from his mission (Matthew 4:1-11). He refused to let others entangle him in petty financial disputes or personal power struggles, and emphasized instead the higher calling of humble, wholehearted service to God (Luke 12:13-21, 22:24-26).

Whether addressing a large crowd or talking with an individual in private, Jesus never forgot why he came: "to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). Even when facing the cross, Jesus stayed true to his purpose and prayed, "Father, glorify your name" (John 12:28). Then after rising from the dead, the Lord gave his followers the ultimate "mission statement" in the Great Commission's four words: "Go . . . make disciples . . . baptizing . . . and teaching" (Matthew 28:19, 20).

Have you lost your sense of purpose? Do you thirst for a meaningful life? Stop drinking from broken cisterns. Go back to the well. Taste again the "living water" only Christ can provide.

Refreshing, isn't it?