There are days when I feel a void in life. The void can appear with the Monday morning blahs, and my longing for freedom. Somedays I feel it facing the same old boring routine repeated over and over, that is when somewhere in me whispers, there must be more in life. Other times the void looms after of a long and difficult day, I just want to run away to a place of peace and quiet. There are all sorts of voids in life, some of the most difficult, and largest, come in the form of fear, loneliness, depression, and grief.

At some point all of us try to fill these voids. The list is long of things we use to quell the ache: food, spending money, traveling, risk-taking, lust, gambling, alcohol, drugs, it goes on and on. The trouble is that filling the void with these things is temporary and grossly inadequate. They can only pretend to fill the void, but do no more than divert attention away from the hole in life.

That is the issue that Jesus addressed with the woman at the well (John 4). She tried to fill her void with men: five failed marriages and starting on the sixth. Her thirst to be loved could not be quenched with a thousand men. To fill her void Jesus offers her living water that only he can give. We are all like this woman and must choose to continue trying to fill the void with self-indulgence, or deny our own remedy and let Jesus fill our life with living water. But what is this “living water” that Jesus wants to give us?

“For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.” (John 3:34)

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18)

Since the beginning, the main void we have had is a relationship with God. No wonder nothing of this world can satisfy. Through Jesus, we can have the one thing we need the most, that fills the void as nothing else can, the Holy Spirit, God in us.