Find Opportunities In The Normal
by Dan Jones, M.D.
John 4:4-10
Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans)
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
In these verses, John gives us a glimpse of Jesus sharing the gospel message with another person. There are lessons for us as we seek to share the gospel with others in our lives. Our first lesson from this experience is that Jesus had the opportunity to share the gospel in the normal course of events in His life.
Jesus was on his way to some other place to accomplish some other goal. He “had to go through Samaria.” He was weary and thirsty and wanted water. It was the custom to bring your own device for dipping water from the well, so as a traveler, he called on the woman there to assist him. This encounter offered him the opportunity to share the gospel with this woman.
We should note that Jesus did not allow the traditions and customs of his society to prevent him from taking this opportunity. Most Jewish men would not have been in Samaria in the first place. They would have taken the longer route around Samaria to avoid contact with these “half-breeds”. Certainly, most Jewish men would not have engaged in conversation with a Samaritan woman, especially one at the well at an odd hour of the day. Her presence in the middle of the day would have suggested to anyone familiar with customs of that day that even among Samaritans, she was an outcast in society. But Jesus saw that she was a person with a need and did not allow societal pressure to prevent him from taking the opportunity in the normal course of his day to share God’s love and his story.
Health professionals have such rich opportunities for encountering people in need of God’s love and the gospel every day in the normal course of events. By definition, we come into contact with people during their times of need. This is one of the great privileges of being a health professional. Just as Jesus looked for opportunities to share the gospel in the normal events of the day, we should follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit in seeing opportunities to share our faith in our daily lives.
Lord, make me sensitive to opportunities to share your love in the normal events of the day.
Dan Jones, M.D., MACP, FAHA, a board-certified Internist, a former medical missionary to Korea, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi until 2015. Dr. Dan Jones is a member of CMDA.
Dr. Jones welcomes any comments or questions about what he has written and can be reached at - djones@umc.edu
Rounds with the Master, Spiritual Pearls from the Great Physician Devotionals are released every Monday and Thursday.
Photo by Linus Mimietz on Unsplash
