John 4:11 “The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?”
The woman at the well had spent her whole life focused on the bucket. She was worried about how Jesus was going to draw water without one. She was thinking about the tool when Jesus was pointing her to the source. Her whole life had been about buckets, and she was about to find out it was all about the well.
Every one of us carries buckets. We carry them down to different wells trying to fill something inside of us that only God can fill. We drop the bucket into one thing, pull it up, drink, and find ourselves thirsty again. Then we grab another bucket and try another well. And another. And another.
John 4:13 “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.”
The buckets never satisfy. They were never meant to. But we keep going back to them anyway.
Notice the buckets we carry.
The Relationship Bucket
We think the right person will finally fill us. A spouse, friend, a group that finally understands us. The woman at the well had been to this well five times and was on her sixth try. Five husbands and living with a man she was not married to. Every one of them a bucket she thought would satisfy, and every one of them ran dry.
Jeremiah 2:13 “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
People are gifts from God, but people were never meant to fill our bucket. When we lean the full weight of our soul on another person, we crush them and we starve ourselves. A Christian who tries to fill the God-shaped place in the heart with a person will always end up disappointed and always end up alone.
The Entertainment Bucket
We think the next show, the next scroll, the next game, the next distraction will finally give us rest. So we fill our hours with noise. We fall asleep with a screen in our face and wake up reaching for it before our feet hit the floor. And still we are empty.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 “And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy… Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.”
Solomon tried this bucket to the fullest and came up empty. Entertainment will pass the time, but it will not fill the soul.
The Religion Bucket
This one is dangerous because it looks so close to the real thing. We fill the bucket with religious activity and forget the well entirely. We go through the motions, say the right things and show up in the right places. But there is no living water in any of it by itself.
John 4:22 “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.”
The Samaritan woman had a religion, it was just pulling from the wrong source. She worshipped what she did not know. Billions of people do the same thing today. They have a religion but they do not have a relationship with the God of the Bible. The bucket looks full but the well is dry.
The Money Bucket
We think if the account gets big enough, the worry will go away. If the paycheck gets high enough, the pressure will lift. But the bucket never fills. There is always another bill, another goal, another number to chase.
1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Ecclesiastes 5:10 “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.”
Money is a tool, not a well. It can pay for a lot of things, but it cannot pay for peace, love, or joy.
The Control Bucket
We think if we can just get our hands around every situation, every person, every outcome, we will finally rest. So we grip harder. We plan more, we manipulate and manage. We try to be the god of our own little world. And the tighter we squeeze, the more it slips.
Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
Proverbs 19:21 “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”
Control is a bucket with a hole in the bottom. No matter how much you pour in, you cannot keep it full.
The Achievement Bucket
We think the next promotion, a title, good grades, or recognition will solve all of our problems. So we run harder and stay later. We push through what should have been rest. And when we finally get the thing, we find it does not satisfy either. We just move the goal. There is gain in hard work, but if the hard work is without God, we are spinning our wheels.
Ecclesiastes 4:4 “Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.”
Achievement is a bucket that always shows empty at the top. There is always another rung with another comparison and another mountain. And the soul is still thirsty at the end of it all.
The Escape Bucket
We think a change of scenery will finally do it. A new job, new city, or a new vacation. Something to get us out from under whatever is pressing down on us.
Geography shifts never fixes a spiritual problem. Jonah tried to run from God on a boat to Tarshish and ended up in the belly of a fish. The prodigal son went to a far country and ended up eating with the pigs. You cannot outrun a problem that lives inside you.
Psalm 139:7-8 “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”
The escape bucket does not work because you always come with yourself.
The Deep Well and the Empty Bucket
The woman at the well told Jesus the well was deep and He had nothing to draw with. She was worried about His bucket. He was pointing her past every bucket she had ever used.
John 4:14 “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Everything she had ever tried had left her thirsty again. She was going to the physical well at noon to avoid the other women because her bucket-life had made her ashamed.
Then Jesus offered her a well.
The problem is not that we are thirsty. Everybody is thirsty. The problem is what we keep dropping our bucket into. Every bucket in this blog is a well that runs dry.
Take an honest look at the buckets in your hands today. What have you been running to when the pressure hits? What have you been trying to fill up that keeps coming back empty?
That is the well problem!
The good news is there is another well. A well that never runs dry and always satisfies. A well that changes everything. And that is where we are going in Part 2.
