Did you (better yet, your kids) ever go through the “refuse to shower phase”? I'm talking about those stinky awkward days of middle school. The body changes and odors commence, but our hygiene habits haven’t caught up yet. 😬
My husband and I have served in youth ministry "on and off" for almost 20 years. Summer youth camp has been such an epic time for so many of these middle school tweens and teens who have experienced very real encounters with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have been blessed to witness these miracles.
We have also witnessed not-so-pleasant encounters with the stink that comes with youth camp. Bodies can get foul-smelling. 🤢There are moments of graciousness and hope that the odor will end with a good washing, but sometimes that tween or teen doesn’t smell what has become their stench. They are nose-blind, but others are not. Like a frog in a pot,
they have not noticed their gradual descent into Pigpen status. They really believe that the time in the pool or lake and Axe body spray are all they need to get them clean.
It is eventually up to the loving adult/youth leader to gently teach the middle schooler to listen to Mom when she says that bathing is necessary. Sometimes, we will get a denial from them that they don’t stink, and they have showered. At that point, a loving youth worker says, “The pool doesn’t count, it doesn’t clean you.” Getting a student to the realization of their stink is hard and sometimes embarrassing, but admitting it, as the saying goes, is half that battle. The other fifty percent is the washing and feeling fresh and new.
In John 4:1-14, we see Jesus speaking with a woman at a well. The woman has come during the hottest part of the day to draw water for her household. She appears cunning; posing her questions to Jesus to deflect performing another chore for someone. She also is smart; knowing the history of their culture, relevance of the mountain, and knowledge of the promised Messiah. She has created barriers to survive in her current state of her own stink.
Us too.
It’s human nature to try and cover up so our vulnerabilities don’t show. Rather than seeking God to cover us with His love, we try to hide our messiness ourselves.
Centuries earlier, God inspired the prophet Jeremiah was to warn the children of God of against these very sins. In Jeremiah 2:13, the Lord says to the prophet:
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (NASB)
The woman at the well has created defenses, devised ways to work around her stink. She comes to the well at a different time than the rest of the women in the village. She crafts elaborate answers for Jesus. But these defensive maneuvers don’t fix her brokenness. Jesus skillfully engages in conversation with her, like a dance of moves and counter moves. Her evasive response is intelligent, but He gently points out her stink, alerting her to her nose blindness. In verse 13, He tells her:
“Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
The woman at the well had a choice. Now that attention
had been drawn to her stink, she could address it or ignore it. Are you facing a similar choice? In the next post, we’ll discuss the obstacles the woman at the well faced and learn the choice she made.
Are there areas of sin in your life that God is drawing your attention to?
What walls or defenses have you built to help hide your sin?
What would repentance require of you? What would you lose? What would you gain?
Sarah Ronne, Worthy Content Writer
*This is part of our quarterly series: Empowered to Repent. Join our discussion on our social media platforms.
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