One Powerful Voice
Many years ago there lived a woman in the town of Sychar of Samaria. If you would like to read a full account of her story, you may find it in the fourth chapter of The Gospel of John in the Bible. This woman represents many different issues and difficulties people face today.
We can know several things about this woman. We know she had given up on people. On the day we meet her in the story she has walked to a well outside of town to draw water. She came at the hottest part of the day. At a time when she hoped no one would be there because she had isolated herself from people.
Maybe she was suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder. It is a very common anxiety among people. It could be she had grown tired of experiencing the judgmentalism and the murmuring of other people. More about that in a moment.
She had also given up on marriage. She had been married five times and was now living with a guy she was not married to. We do not know the circumstances as to why she has had five husbands, but she has. We will not speculate.
From that we can glean she had also compromised her sexual integrity. This was probably causing her to be judged by her fellow Samaritans. She probably came to draw water at a time when she hoped no one would be there because she knew her lifestyle was not culturally acceptable and she did not want to experience the stares and put-downs of people.
But then there was the day her life took a radical shift. Even though she experienced a culture clash when she arrived at the well, it was that culture clash from an outsider that was a significant part of her life change. It all started with Jesus saying, “Give me a drink.”
The culture of her upbring led her to be suspicious of outsiders. She was suspicious of Jesus and even shocked that He would dare speak to her. However, these few minutes of an encounter with Jesus changed her life and her interests.
Even though she came to the well to draw water, she left her waterpot and ran to town to tell the people about this man. In droves, they went out to see Him.
Why did they go out to hear about Jesus? Was it because of her passion? Was it because of her carefully chosen words? Was it because of her honesty?
It was that, but also because of her credibility. She had grown up in that town. She was a local. She probably went to school with these people.
Several of you reading this article have that kind of credibility. If you would use your voice for Him, you could turn your street, your neighborhood, your town up-side-down. That’s what happened the day this lady, with a checkered past, became one powerful voice to her people.
