Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Enough About Me

...let’s talk about me.

Last night Stephen Colbert talked about narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder. I laughed so hard I nearly wet my pants (OK, so that's not saying much). The point is, I found it hilarious.

I may be somewhat narcissistic but I can say for sure that I don’t have narcissistic personality disorder. Although I have wished for it. Life would be so much simpler if I never empathized with anyone.

After Colbert and before I fell asleep, I read the story in John 4 about Jesus and the Samaritan Woman. Now here's a woman I can relate to. Not on every level, mind you (knock on wood). But in some ways she reminds me of me. I guess that's why I like her so much.

So, Jesus is traveling around town; he's tired and thirsty. He stops at a well and asks the woman who "happens" to be standing there to get him a drink. He spends some of his precious time on Earth talking with her. We get only so many pages in the Bible to hear about Jesus’ life and they spend almost a whole page on this chick.

She thinks the fact that he’s speaking with her is pretty amazing. First of all she’s a woman, secondly a Samaritan (Jews didn't associate with Samaritans), and third, she’s had five husbands. To top it off, she was living with a sixth man when Jesus stopped by looking for a drink.

She doesn't even know about the being recorded for posterity part yet.

Jesus tells her about “living water” and salvation. She says, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.” John 4:19. “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” John 4:25.

Jesus looks at her, with what I imagine to be a tender loving gaze, and declares, “I who speak to you am He.” John 4:26

I think, “Here this woman is...she’s talking to Christ and doesn’t even know it. I wonder how long it took her to get around to fetching him some water.” I smile, shake my head, and go to bed thinking…

That is totally something I would do.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is one of my favorite stories. Jesus talking with the people that usually get mocked or ignored... I love how he is so real and comes to her where she is at. I relate to her too. Sometimes not feeling worthy...and then Christ interupts and says I am. tears. Living water!

Cheeky Church Lady in Training said...

It's easy to forget and sometimes hard to fathom how much He loves us. Just us regular old us's. Thanks for visiting, Ru. You are a beautiful child of God. You make Jesus smile. And I know you, you would have been on the cup of water in a nanosecond. :)
xoxox,
Cheeky

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