Are You Running in the Wrong Direction?

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fvodpod.com%2Fwatch%2F117569-casting-crowns-does-anybody-hear-her&h=8de36

The above link will take you to a video of a Casting Crowns song entitled, "Does Anybody Hear Her?"...
I was struck by this song yesterday morning on my way to work...it was playing on my radio just as I was pulling up to my place of employment, which  happens to be a church with a most imposing and glorious steeple that towers over the city and looks down upon a whole community of lost and lonely people.  I thought to myself, "Wow, what a song to hear just as I crested the hill where I could see the top of that steeple spiraling up toward the heavens!"  Then I thought about all the lost and lonely people that I pass by every single day....even though it is a beautiful, historic, charming southern victorian section of the city, there are many, many hurting, homeless, lost people all around us.  I see one very thin woman carrying her large shopping bag full of her life's treasures, always wearing a long raincoat as she walks to and fro to where? From where? I don't know.  We have many needy people stopping in our church on a regular basis for assistance with their light bills, rent, (if they have a place to live), gas for their vehicle (if they are fortunate enought to have one) so they can get wherever they need to go, and many even asking for Greyhound Bus Tickets to get them back home to a safe haven (hopefully). 

Thankfully our Pastors are cognizant of the even greater needs many of these people have for words of hope and encouragement, exhortation, and perhaps even counsel on how to come to Christ...the Only answer for ALL their needs. That's the real need of their hearts... they need Jesus.  Oh yes, I know they need food, shelter, clothes, gas, and all the other necessities of life...I'm not so "heavenly minded" that I can't see their earthly needs.  But it is so important to give these people more than just things...they need hope for a way out of their deep despair...they need light for the darkness in their hearts and minds, they need power from on High to pull out of the deep pits into which many have fallen and feel hopelessly trapped.  They need to drink from the well of everlasting life...so they will never thirst again...like that woman at the well, who met Jesus there, and He said to her,

"If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 

and when He offered her the gift of everlasting water, she said,

"Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw..." (See John 4:1-30)

When her eyes were opened to the truth, she realized that Jesus was the Messiah, and even though her sins were great and her problems were many, she believed, and went and brought many others to Him so that they too might drink of that living water.  I believe that woman's life was changed at that very moment...I have a feeling she found a new freedom in Christ that she had never known before...and she couldn't wait to share it with others. I would love to have followed that woman around after her encounter with Christ, to watch and see exactly how God was working in her and through her in ways she never had imagined possible before that meeting.

Have you been to the well of living water?  Have you drank from it's depth of compassion, strength, and power?  Have you shared that with anyone else?  Or are you still running in the wrong direction?

Lord, I pray for all the "lost and lonely people" around me right now...right in the shadow of our steeple.  Open my eyes, Lord, to see them as You see them.  I've already drank from that living water...help me to run and tell others the good news...The Messiah has come! He is here with us right now...living in us in a fountain that is overflowing with eternal life...with power to live both now and forever.  Thank you, Dear Jesus, for the hope that is in me.  Help me to spread the news. Amen.