Why Thirst
John 4:13 states “Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Why Thirst
I grew up in a church congregation that taught of God’s vengeance and not of God’s love. I spent the majority of my pre-teen, teen and adult years in fear of God. In fear of what would happen when I sinned. And of course I did sin. Instead of asking God for forgiveness for what I deemed unforgivable sins, I figured in my own mind, that since I was going to Hell, I might as well continue to sin. Today, I will share with you my life choices, my life circumstances and the plan that God had all along for my life to serve him.
I Thirsted
The summer before I went to fifth grade, my family moved. I was taken out of my comfort zone with my friends I had since before kindergarten and moved to an unknown. My Mom and Dad wanted me to be in a better school and since my mother worked for the Board of Education, she knew the school system she wanted me to be in. The neighborhood we had just moved to had just begun to be segregated. That year I was called the “N” word for the first time and really the only time I could think of. I did find a friend before school started. This friend and my choice to remain her friend would begin to mold my life early on.
The funny thing is the harder I try, I cannot seem to remember my “friends” name. She moved within the first year of my being there and besides I have a horrible memory. We played with each other over the summer and went to school in the fall. Within the first week one of the “popular” girls told me that if I continued to be friends with this girl, I could not be in the crowd because they did not like this girl. I selected friendship over popularity and this affected my self esteem for the rest of my school years. The popular people begin avoiding me and out and out calling me names. They would taunt me telling me how ugly I was, how my face was filled with pimples, how I was smelly, how I looked like a giraffe, and so on.
6th grade was not all that bad. That is before the incident however. Going to school was fun for the most part, the classes were difficult, friends were plenteous, and the food was good. Life at Lancaster Country Day School was swell, again, before the incident. Now, said issue somewhat killed my image at the school and saved it at the same time; it also made me question others. Were my friends really my friends? Or did they use me to as a sick and twisted way to formulate drama? I had a friend. I had many friends really, I was friends with the whole 50 people in my grade. But this friend, this friend was different. Her name Mady Gosselin. Yes, the Mady Gosselin from Kate Plus 8. We had been close, I talked to her almost every day. However,
She doesn 't even like you that much,” Gretchen whispers to Cady (Mean Girls). Putting others down by calling names or saying hurtful things causes more problems then one would think. This can cause mental and emotional problems. Saying her hair is an ugly color or her mom is fat are just some examples of very hateful things that can be used to put others down. These are things that she has no control over. When she tries so hard to look pretty and not get made fun of and yet it still happens, this drains self confidence. An article called, “An Approach with Name-calling and Verbal Taunting” says victims of name calling have low status in the friend group. However, this often changes as they grow and mature. The tendency for bullies to harass younger students and embarrass them in public becomes less towards the end of high school, but in the early years, as freshmen and sophomores, the environment can be “very hostile, competitive and non-accepting of social difference” (Lines). A scenario on eduguide.org explains it
I wanted to wear brand clothes/shoes they did, I wanted to do my hair like them, and make good grades like them. I wanted to fit in. My cultural identify took a back seat. But it was not long before I felt black and white did not mix. I must have heard too many comments asking to speak Haitian or I do not look Haitian, but more than that, I am black, so I always had to answer question about my hair or why my nose is big, and that I talked white. This feeling carried on to high school because the questions never went away and the distance between me and them grew larger. There was not much action my family could take for those moments in my life, but shared their encounters or conversations to show me I was not alone in dealing with people of other background. I surrounded myself with less white people and more people of color and today, not much has
I was the only African-American and there was no one I could relate to or who could relate to me. I stayed to myself and kept thinking, Life is not always great, but I just have to get through this. There were certain people I was able to get along with, but even they would occasionally make racial comments. By then I was fully aware of how much respect they lacked.
In high school, is when I experienced socialization the most. After middle school, my mom didn’t want to send me to another public school because of adversities I faced there. I lived in an inner city area so I would’ve been forced to attend one of the worst public schools in my city. In her decision, she sent my older brother and I to a Christian private school that was predominantly white. A student body of approximately 1,500 and only about 400 of those students were of minority decent. In my graduating class it was only 50 of us, to give a visual
As a kid, I didn’t understand what race meant or its implications. I was pretty much oblivious to it. Race meant getting some kids together and running a foot race. The one who made it to the end of the block won. I never felt that I was special because of my race. Nor did I feel discriminated against. Of course, I was sheltered from race and racism. I never knew any people of color because I grew up in an all-white, lower-to-middle-class blue-collar neighborhood. I never encountered someone of another race, and my parents made sure of it. I wasn’t allowed outside of our own neighborhood block, as my mother kept a strong leash on me. Not until I was much older did I wander outside the safety net of our all-white neighborhood.
I realized that I no longer feared death; in fact with Him I faced it like a bold soldier, knowing that He would never forsake me, not even near or in death. I couldn’t understand why God had allowed this to happen to me, after all, I felt that I was a good person who never bothered or did any harm to anyone, and always lend a helping hand, but the truth to the matter is that there are no good people, every single one have sinned and fell short of the mercies of God. (Romans 3:23; Romans 3:10-18; Ecclesiastes 7:20; 1 John
I went to a local middle school, the same one my sister went to. It was at middle school I met my first true friend, someone I felt like I could understand. Somebody who I felt understood me. Of course, there was only so much we were willing to discuss. Both of us came from Asian families, and both of us were expected to study hard and learn. But together, we were stronger. I began to realize that we built off of each other. Rather than trying to absorb his traits into myself, we merged, both becoming superior beings. But the pressure of my family, and the pressure of society never fades.
Most of my classmates were very rude and mean to me. They would flick my ear muffs, try to sneak up behind me and scare me, hit me on my arms to get my attention, get all up in my face, laugh at me when I couldn’t understand. The worst thing that classmates did to me happened at lunch. At lunch they were “talking behind my back” while I was sitting right in front of them. Little did they know I could read their lips, and later that day my friend told me what they were saying about me. That really hurt my feelings, but what can you do. On the other hand, however, there were some good responses I had with classmates. For example my friend Nick learned to fingerspell from one of his friends, so when he was in my class and I didn’t understand something, or there was an assignment that was due the next day, he would sign it to me. He was very helpful, and if someone wanted to tell me something he would kind of interpret for me. Nick was not the only kid to help me out though. Some of the people I sat by in classes would write in my notebook what was going on to help me out, but that was actually only one person that did
Think back to a time when you were afraid. Not just a normal fear like that of a random bump in the night, but a moment in which you were struck with the fear of God himself. Whether it be a moment in which you stared death in the eyes or one in which another, darker, more sinister phantom crept into your mind; capture that thought. Let it again saturate
Once upon a time there was a lost girl who was very hungry for the word of God, but was lost in a world of false nourishment that not only did not nourish, but failed to offer her a spiritually healthy lifestyle. Goldilost walked through the streets Livermore in search of not only the word of God but a loving close relationship with Christ that could sustain her hunger indefinitely. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me” (John 6: 54-7,
and a rise to a new life as a Christian. Water is used to cleanse and
In the Gospel of John, Jesus is always talking about “eternal life.” “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life,”24 he tells the crowd that is following him. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”25 “Eternal life” is often interpreted to mean living forever in heaven after we die, but Jesus uses this term in a more urgent way, to mean the abundant life we receive when we live in the “unending presence of God.”26 Because God is the Creator of life, God is the only true Source of life. Jesus informs the crowd that he has come to bring them back to the Source of life, and they can partake in this abundance right now. If they will only drop their preoccupation with finding life in other places, if they will only stop trying to stockpile life for themselves, if they can only trust Jesus, then they will find life that is more abundant than they could ever have imagined. Of course, the crowd cannot obtain the life that Jesus offers without help. John Wesley understood...
It was the second semester of fourth grade year. My parents had recently bought a new house in a nice quite neighborhood. I was ecstatic I always wanted to move to a new house. I was tired of my old home since I had already explored every corner, nook, and cranny. The moment I realized I would have to leave my old friends behind was one of the most devastating moments of my life. I didn’t want to switch schools and make new friends. Yet at the same time was an interesting new experience.
My education began in fifth grade, my parents moved from one location to another. It wasn’t easy for me, because school was the first place I ever got to interact with other kids. Before school started, I was pretty much kept indoors and not allowed to have contact with other people, except for my family members.