My life before Jesus was a symptom of spiritual dehydration. I was materially malnourished.
Life was like parking in a garage, being so self-absorbed that I walk away without taking note of the parked location, returning to the garage much later, not finding my car because I don’t know exactly where to look, frantically walking all floors, thinking my car was stolen, and then seeing my car.
Yes, this actually happened to me. More than once. Or more to the point, I did this multiple times. For the spiritually dehydrated, always hustling but never arriving, accomplishing even the most trivial task feels like an accidental achievement.
I was doing the right things, in the general vicinity of where I was supposed to be, but without a firm foundation to hold me steady and anchor my focus on what really matters.
Without Jesus, we hold keys to cars we can’t locate. We’re stuck yet spinning our wheels, parked and perpetually parched.
Jesus understands thirst. It’s a symptom of worldliness He carried all the way to the Cross.1
Christ invites us to be replenished.
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
It’s an invitation to consider, an offer to accept.2 Jesus isn’t giving us another task to perform or ritual to memorize. He provides the solution: His love and grace, His presence and counsel.
Look at His words. “Come to Me.”
Not a temple-bound tradition. Not a time-saving app or AI scheduling tool. “Me.”
Jesus, our Savior who weeps, the God who comes to walk with us, is so intimately aware of our human struggles that He invested His life to the point of death on a cross to break the curse. His empathy is evidenced in the invitation to “all you who are weary and burdened.” Jesus names the problems; He sees and feels them, because God hears us. And Christ, in His compassion, gives us Himself.
Jesus showed up for us. Let’s show up for Him.
It seems simple because it is.
Come, listen, and be satisfied.3
Simple, yes. Not quick or exactly easy. Jesus is calling us into a lifelong relationship. By getting to know Jesus, seeking God, and finding His voice in Scripture, we drink with our hearts. The spirit of truth activates and awakens the divine Word already implanted within, and rivers of living water begin to flow in and all around us.
When we fix our focus on Jesus, everything is enhanced. Or it just doesn’t matter anymore. Because once we taste His righteousness, all the other is bland and boring. So why labor for the food that does not fill?
Our nourishment is to do the will of God, which we can only understand by first coming to the Lord in prayer, seeking His wisdom, soaking up Scripture, listening for instructions, and then doing “whatever He tells you,” as Mary encourages.4
Following Jesus means the peaceful assurance of living in service to salvation; finding our purpose in Christ enables a mission mindset that clarifies the essential from the superficial.
The rest Jesus promises is not necessarily ease or comfort, nor a hall pass for laziness or exemption from effort. And it’s certainly not convenient.
It’s better.
His thirst will be satisfied, and our souls too.
