Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
He came to a Samaritan city called Sychar,
and tired out by his journey, sat by the well.
– John 4.5-6
Sister,
five-times thrown-away woman,
shunned and shoved to the edge,
to the back, to the other world
of muddy, fouled waters, alone,
named a tramp for being used,
when only others have the power
to marry and dismiss like that,
and even now used but not claimed,
sister,
forced out by privilege,
fenced in by fear, silenced
by everybody’s need to not be you,
cisterned in a deep, private place—
the Beloved comes to you,
walking through walls,
thirsts with you for that deep place,
where in darkness the real life,
welling from infinitely deep within,
gushes up and can’t be taken,
can’t be stopped or plugged or dried,
and in that place falls into sharing
deep and holy things with you.
In the village of your heart
there is a conversation going on
out at Jacob’s well. Listen.
As you thirst together with your Love
a deeper spring bursts forth in you,
a Word, a call, a strength, a truth
that others haven’t heard but will,
a witness powerful enough
to wake a town of doubters,
a new spring gushing up in you
that bathes away your shame,
that bids you leave your jug—
you will be back— and go,
go, sister to this deafened,
hardened world and sing,
and they will listen—yes!—for now
you have been raised to this new life
and given voice and have become
yourself a prophet.
You won’t know now, but later see
how this fountain in your heart
even the bucket of your thirst,
satisfies your tired, parched Beloved,
how he is fed by what he gets
from you.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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