Thought for the Week

Rev Steve Proudlove, vicar at St John's, Menston

MY wife and I are looking at buying a car. Our old one keeps breaking down and so its time is up.

We wonder into a showroom and are bombarded with all the things various cars can do. There’s central locking, sat nav, various airbag arrangements, climate control, upholstery options, engine sizes, fuel types, body colours, parking sensors and an astonishing array of extra gadgets.

Call me boring, but I’d trade any of these (except for the safety features for my kids of course) for a car that won’t break down. But annoyingly, this isn’t possible; and instead I get drawn into discussions of warranty periods and break-down cover – both eventualities I don’t want to have to deal with or think about. The whole point of changing the car is that I don’t have to worry about the warning lights coming on or the tell-tale ironically-cheerful “ding” noise that my current car makes when it’s getting sick! But, so far, no-one has been able to tell me that their car won’t break down – in the end you pay your money and roll the dice.

I could easily turn this into a fairly morbid analogy of Christianity as a warranty for when our lives eventually run out of miles, (which would be fine as far as it goes,) but actually, have you ever noticed that God does something that a used-car salesman can never do? God doesn’t just talk in terms of warranty and break-down cover, but in terms of eternal satisfaction.

There’s a story in the Bible where Jesus chats to a woman at a well who is used to the onerous task of drawing water only for it to run out each day. She could make a bucket-load last as long as possible, but at some point it will spill or run dry – a bit like my car which will only last so long, eventually crashing, breaking down or just falling into rusty bits. To this woman, Jesus offers what he calls “living water” so that she would never run dry again.

Obviously, she, slightly confused, jumps at the chance; just like I’d buy a car which could never break down. Gone would be the days of a dry, arid life of perpetual work that literally flows through her fingers and is lost. Gone would be the years of hanging around at a hole in the ground peering downwards into the dark wishing things could be different. Jesus’s “living water” was offered, not as break-down cover for her life or a warranty against bad things happening. Instead, it is offered to everyone as the essence of meaningful existence, welling up to fuel the journey of life itself.