I believe we’ve all done it, in some way, at one time or another in our lives. We’ve looked over the fence at the proverbial amazing “green grass” of someone across that fence and wished we could be where they are or have what they have. Maybe it was someone’s career, their family, their peace, or simply their sense of direction. It can feel as though they’ve discovered some secret path to success that we somehow missed. In those moments, we can become painfully aware of our own waiting, our own uncertainty, or our own unmet hopes.
You know, don’t beat yourself up over this. It’s human to want better. It’s human to see something good happening to someone and wish (and even pray) that it would happen to you or someone you know. I firmly believe you are not alone in this. Beneath that longing is often something deeper, not merely a desire for what they have, but a desire to know that our own story is still being written, that God has not overlooked us. We want to believe that our present place is not our permanent place. We want to know we are not forgotten.
Scripture gives us a beautiful and surprising picture of how God meets us right in the middle of ordinary, even weary, moments:
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.
— John 4:5-301
Sometimes I’ve found myself reflecting on my own journey and marveling at where I am and what I still get to do. From an academic standpoint, most might not know it took me ten (10) years to complete my undergraduate degree, five (5) years for my master’s, and still another sixteen (16) for my doctorate. Some might see my fun-filled music industry stories and moments, the remarkable people, the meaningful songs, the music ministry partnerships, and assume it was all an easy and straight ahead road. But what is easy to miss are the chapters that didn’t look like progress at all. Practically starting life over after Hurricane Katrina (that 27 foot surge of water did a direct number on our neighborhood and surrounding areas). Surviving days when layoffs seemed imminent. The crushing moment of being let go from a music and ministry dream job. Working under constant pressure and scrutiny in a particular ministry position. In those seasons, it didn’t feel like green grass. It felt like dry ground. Yet even there, God was at work, forming trust within me. Not removing every hardship, but inviting obedience. Sometimes reluctant obedience, sometimes weary obedience, but obedience nonetheless.
God’s timing is always better than our planning, though we are still called to plan and walk faithfully. Or as my pastor, Dr. Steven Smartt, has wisely said, “The right thing at the wrong time is still the wrong thing at the wrong time.” The Samaritan woman did not expect to encounter Jesus (a Jewish man) that day, especially at that hour, and certainly not in that place of her story. Yet it was precisely there, at her ordinary well, carrying her ordinary burdens, that she encountered living water. We often look over the fence and wish for greener grass today, without seeing the seasons of plowing, planting, waiting, and tending that made it so. What looks like blessing on the surface is often the result of unseen faithfulness over time.
So when you find yourself walking toward your well on one of your harder days, do not be surprised if Christ meets you there. He has a way of speaking into the very places we assumed were empty, forgotten, or beyond repair. Jesus is speaking. Find out what He wants for your life, even when it changes, even when it disrupts, and you may discover that the living water He gives begins to transform the very ground beneath your feet. And in time, you may look around and realize that the grass is growing green right where you are.
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
—Book of Common Prayer2
Luke Gambill 