Well of Living Water

One of the reasons that I’m grateful for fasting is because it makes me thirsty.  I say that only half in jest; I am indeed grateful for the reminder of how lucky I am to have water to drink essentially whenever I want it.  So much of the world does not have consistent access to clean water.  The Light the World challenge for today reminded me of this in its encouragement to help give water to those without ready access.  It suggests that “access to clean water has the single greatest impact on global poverty.”  In that theme, this week I was impressed by this video and article about the Village Drill that I found.  This simple, transportable drill was developed by BYU students to drill holes in remote villages in Africa to provide a sustainable and clean water source.  So far it has helped drill 1200 water wells in the past six years and is making an impressive on numerous villages. 

               When the Savior spoke to the woman at the well in the meridian of time, He said, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).  What He offered people was not one-time help, but a way of life that would change them forever.  Just as these drills are installed so that the locals can own and operate them, providing clean water on a permanent basis, so too does the Savior want to help us so that we are changed and enabled forever.  I think this is one of the themes of the Sermon on the Mount.  For example, the world would try to stop people from killing by creating laws against that kind of action, but the Lord seeks to help us overcome the root cause of murder—anger (Matt. 5:21-22).  The world will (sometimes) seek to address the negative consequences of immorality in society, but the Lord teaches that we must attack the underlying problem of lust.  When the Savior told the woman of this living water from him, she pled, thinking only of physical benefits, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”  He responded, “Go, call thy husband, and come hither” (John 4:15-16).  There followed a discussion revealing how she was living in sin despite having been previously married.  The Lord, it seems, was trying to get to her to look past the temporal and see her own need for repentance.  To have access to the “living water” Jesus offered she needed to repent and get out of sin.  This is the way of the gospel--repentance and true change is always what it seeks to bring, so that we can have not just a drink of water, but “a well of living water, springing up unto everlasting life” (D&C 63:23).