humbly broken

I am humbled.

I have spent the past two weeks attempting to write an exegetical paper on the story of the Samaritan woman. I found myself in a love/hate relationship with this paper, with this passage, but especially with this truth. I am thankful for the truths that lie within it. Heck, I chose this passage myself, yet I found it exceedingly difficult to finish the assignment. The difficulty did not come in my lack of motivation, my bad habit of procrastination, or even in my amazing ability to caught any sickness seizing the campus. The difficulty showed itself in the conviction of the truth.

I picked the passage of the Samaritan woman because it has always caught my attention. I have heard numerous sermons and explanations of the interaction between this woman and Jesus. I have even taught a lesson to teenagers on this passage. Naturally, my logical thought process led me to assume this passage as the easiest one to write about.

Through this story of the Samaritan woman, God reminded me of so much truth. Jesus reached out to this woman. He broke any and every social customs. To this dirty outcast, to this sexually immoral female, to his own enemy.  Yet is this not what God has done for us? "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" (Romans 5:10).


I could not read this passage again without weeping. I cannot read this passage without crying. Sometimes I see myself as the Samaritan woman: an outcast, an immoral dog, an enemy of God. Yet Christ went through Samaria for the sake of this interaction. He reached out to her and invited her to drink the living water. He offered her eternal life. He does the same for me. I did nothing to deserve it. I was partaking in my daily rituals and habits.

This past month, for me, has been a month of conviction, sanctification, discipline, repentance, restoration, love, and reconciliation. In my complete vulnerability, I felt oddly safe. In my honesty and my authenticity, I felt comforted and loved. Never in a million years would I have thought this. Never in a million years would I think that I would find myself in the place I am right now. God has reached down to me in my lowest state, when I was a complete sinner stuck in my own sin. I was the lowest of the low and committed almost every sin against him. Yet He broke me. He humbled me. Because when I least deserved it, God died for me.