Overwhelmed to Overflowing - John 4:5-42

As you may know during this Lent our parishes have focused on our need to become a new creation in Christ. One of the key callings in that mission is to become “transformed”. St Therese of Lisieux prayed for transformation using this prayer: “Jesus help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be – and becoming that person.”
 
Here in the Gospel, Jesus makes the distinction between the water coming from the well and His living water. This metaphor that he uses helps to guide us from lives that are overwhelming to lives that are overflowing.
 
Time Magazine said in a recent article that as Americans, we live in an age of FOMO, the fear of missing out. According to them, about 70% of the millennial generation say that they struggle with FOMO. It manifests itself in the way they (and really all of us) overbook our calendars, overspend our money, overvalue the approval of others, and overload our emotions following all the cataclysmic breaking news of the day. As a result, we feel over-stressed, over-anxious and overwhelmed.
 
Why do we allow ourselves to be manipulated like this? It’s the fear of missing out. We don’t want to feel left behind, left out, inferior or unloved. The symbolism of water in our readings helps us to see the need to move from living this overwhelmed life to living a life that is overflowing.
 
I’ve heard it said this way: There are two fundamentally different approaches to life.  We can approach life with a shortage mindset, or we can approach life with a surplus mindset. The difference was never more evident than this week.
 
A shortage mindset means I never have enough, and I never will. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough money. I don’t have enough energy. I don’t have enough contacts. I don’t have enough toilet paper. It’s always a feeling that we’re a little bit short and a day late. That is going to leave us feeling overwhelmed. The woman at the well exhibits this when she says, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket and the cistern is deep.”
 
The focus within the shortage lifestyle is on my limited resources, look at all the things that I am lacking. When I have a shortage lifestyle, I think that life is like a pie and when someone takes a bigger piece, that means a smaller piece for me. If they get more then I am going to get resentful, I’ll get worried, I’ll get anxious. This week we were treated to a visual of this -fistfights in supermarkets. That’s the shortage mentality.
 
Now instead, God wants us to live in the surplus lifestyle, drawing from his living water. That mentality says that God has more than I’ll ever need, and he’ll never run out. God doesn’t give us one pie. He is a pie factory! And there will always be more pies because God’ll keep making them.
 
When we maintain a surplus mindset - instead of focusing on my limited resources, I focus on God’s unlimited resources. That changes everything.
 
In Psalm 23, David speaks to the life of surplus. He says, “You fill my cup to overflowing” or another way, “You give me more than I can hold.” He’s talking about the overflowing life rather than the overwhelmed life. I’m not overwhelmed anymore because I don’t have enough time, energy, or whatever. There’s like a river coming out of me. My cup overflows. An overflowing life means that we are filled beyond capacity with an endless supply with God’s goodness. That’s what Jesus wants for each of us.
 
This metaphor of overflowing appears throughout scripture. God talks about having a cup of joy, a cup of his blessing, a cup of peace, a cup of salvation- all are available to us. Why? Because we serve a good God.
 
Because God is good, everything he does for our lives is for our good. Only when we doubt that goodness do we find ourselves into trouble. Even the tough stuff that he does in our lives is for our good.
 
In Isaiah 48 God says, “I am the holy God, who redeems you. For your own good, I teach you and lead you along the right path.” God fills the bible with all kinds of principles for our own good. He continues, “How I wish that you had obeyed my commands! Then your success, good fortune and prosperity would have overflowed like a flooding river!” The water symbolism continues.
 
Jesus is essentially saying this to the woman at the well, isn’t he? God wants us to succeed. He is giving us the key to a successful life. God is saying, “I am a parent who loves you. I am your loving heavenly Father. Anytime you disobey me, you’re just saying, ‘I don’t trust your goodness, God. I am a better judge of what is good for me. What I think is good for me is more important than what you think is good for me.”
 
Jesus says in John 10:10, “I have come that you may have real life, and enjoy it in abundance – to the fullest, until it overflows.” This means that we’re really not living until we know him, have a relationship.
 
May I give you four daily habits that lead to an overflowing life? These came from a reflection I heard from Pastor Rick Warren, the fellow who wrote the book, “The Purpose Driven Life”.  Easy to list, easy to understand.
 

1. Stay connected to Jesus. Lent is a great time to find a quiet spot daily and have a brief conversation with him. John 15 – “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” I’m sure that you know the rest of that passage. Think of the metaphor of the toaster. A toaster cannot fulfill its purpose unless it is plugged into the power source.  Stay connected to Jesus.
2. Be grateful. A great way to start each prayer is to start by taking notice of the blessings that we have received. Maybe it’s one small thing that has happened to us that we otherwise might have taken for granted. 1 Thessalonians 5: “No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

 

3. Stop comparing and start being content. The scriptures say that anytime I compare myself to anyone else I am being foolish. God made each of us with a specific mission in life. God only makes originals, he doesn’t make clones. When we get to heaven, God’s not going to say, “Why weren’t you more like your sister?” When we compare we get envious, anxious, and resentful. It all leads to a life that’s overwhelming. Ecclesiastes 4: “It is better to be content with what you have than to always be struggling for more. That is like chasing the wind.”  In other words: Run your own race.

 

4. Stop being stingy and start being generous. If we want to move from living the overwhelmed lifestyle to being overflowing we must be willing to give of our time, our energy and our complements. Stinginess is evidence of a shortage mentality, where we say, “If I give it away, I’m not going to have enough for myself.” This mentality reveals that we really don’t trust the goodness of God.

God wired a universal law into the universe: The more we give away, the more we’re going to get. God wired us this way because he wants us to be like him. God is a giver. Everything we have is a gift of God’s generosity. When we give the more we become like Jesus.
 
In order to be transformed as we are called to this Lenten season, Jesus is asking us to be people of action. Stay connected to him by making time to be with him in prayer. Deliberately show our gratitude even in the midst of the storms. Stop playing the comparison game, on social media or wherever we feel inclined to unnecessarily seek the approval of others.  And lastly, be cheerful givers. Be generous with our words of praise, and give of our time, our talent and our treasure.
 
 
And so we pray, Lord we have a lot going on in our lives that can easily overwhelm us.  Help us to see your hand guiding us away from a shortage mentality, which leads to anxiety and resentment, to a surplus mentality that leads to the contentment and joy. Help us to trust in your goodness and in your provision. Give us the wisdom to make decisions that are rooted in our faith in you and not in the fears that we many times impose on ourselves. You are a good God. Help us to see that more clearly each and every day.
We pray this prayer in Jesus’ name.
 
Amen!