Focus Week 2

Focus on Talking to God

Have you ever zoned out in the middle of a conversation? Your friend is in the middle of a story, or your teacher is in the middle of a lecture, when you hear those dreaded words: “Hey, are you listening to me?” The answer , of course, is no.

If it’s that easy to zone out in a conversation with a person who’s standing right in front of us, you know it’s a million times easier to zone out in the middle of a conversation with God, who we can’t really see or hear in the usual ways.

We are going to see a conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman that would not have been an ordinary conversation. It had had a lot of history around it, history that had the potential to make this conversation pretty awkward.

Jews and Samaritans had a long history of disagreements. The clashed culturally, but they also had big disagreements about God which caused a big divide.

Not only did tension exist because of the cultural differences between Jesus and the woman, but because of their genders. In that time and location of the world, women were not regarded or treated equally. By having a conversation one-on-one with this woman, Jesus was defying social norms. To most people, it would have been pretty scandalous to see them talking.

At that time, women didn't have the same kind of freedom to choose their husbands they have today. Without a husband, women were often excluded from society — based on the time of day she was drawing water from the well, it's likely she was there to avoid other women (or because other women wanted to avoid her). Plus, women relied on their husbands for financial security, since women didn't have the same kinds of opportunities to make an income on their own.

For these reasons, this woman was astounded that Jesus would acknowledge her and confused about whether or not she should be talking with him.

Despite the potential awkwardness, the woman decided to continue talking to Jesus anyway. Through that conversation, two things were revealed to her:

The truth about who she was, because Jesus knew everything about her!And the truth about who Jesus was.

Their conversation was full of surprises, but the biggest surprise was when she realized she was indeed speaking with the Jesus, the promised Messiah.

She was so amazed and in awe of the words they exchanged that she left her water jug right behind as she ran home to tell others about what she learned.

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She was so amazed and in awe of the words they exchanged that she left her water jug right behind as she ran home to tell others about what she learned.

Talking to God inspired her to feel something different, become something different, and do different things too. Talking to Jesus changed her life.

When she shifted her focus to talking to God, she learned more about who Jesus was, and who she was too. The truth of what she learned set her free to experience and talk about God's love openly.

We might think we need to use certain words, have music playing, have the right attitude, or stand in a specific building in order for God to understand us clearly. In reality, we don't have to have everything figured out when we talk to God. We can talk to God by simply being ourselves, just like the Samaritan woman did.