Here's my million dollar question. How would spirit animate life?

That's the same question the Samaritan woman asked Jesus when she encountered him at the community well. For some unrevealed reason she was able to identify him as a Jew. We are told in the parentheses that Samaritans and Jews weren't on speaking terms in earthy neighborhoods.

Jesus asks her for a drink of water.

"You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?

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."

"Sir,"the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered,"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:9-14, NIV)

As we read on it turns out that this woman had been looking into a lot of empty buckets. She'd gotten herself involved in five failed relationships, and she was living with a sixth. We can imagine the confused look that gathered recognition across her face. How did he know this stuff? She was probably thinking.

A sharp light quickly shot through her brain. "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet." Then she threw in a little pop quiz to further test his authenticity. "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

Now Jesus knew the inside story from his Father's neighborhood. Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know,for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and now has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth,for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit,and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John4:19-24, NIV)

Next,she blurted out the final exam. The woman said, "I know that the Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." (John 4:25, NIV)

Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." (John4:26, NIV)

I would have liked to have been there to see the big question moving across her face. Could this be true? She probably thought. At any rate she must have decided she needed more witnesses. She abruptly dropped her bucket and ran into the village. I bet she grabbed the first person, who had been minding their own business,and set the word-of-mouth grape vine a buzz.

"Come,see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (John 4:29, NIV)

Right now I could identify with this woman. I'd witnessed a real dead end in my earthy neighborhood. That body bag had left some empty spaces,silent caverns in my mind. Raw emotions had left my bucket empty, and I needed to fill it.

They came out of the town and made their way toward him.(John 4:30, NIV)

My eyes bounced back to the previous words I'd read. ...God gives the Spirit without limit. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal  life...(John 3:36, NIV)There must have been a lot of Samaritans looking for a drink of water they couldn't find in their earthy neighborhood.

My brain was working overtime. If God is Spirit and He is looking for people to relate to Him in spirit, then this whole getting spiritually reborn might be an important step for me to consider.

Writing about this twelve years, and a-whole-river-of-water-under-my life's-bridge-later, that moment still brings a conscious rush (like a wind) into my body.

I asked!

In that quiet, solitary moment, I knew I wanted to continue on the journey.I wanted to explore that neighborhood. The Spirit was my ticket.

Jesus had entered my earthy neighborhood and challenged the rules and assumptions with which its culture is founded and informed. He appeared in a material body and revealed the Father's unseen nature and power.

Jesus used a bread metaphor to explain his mission. ...It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.(John6:32-33, NIV)

He inaugurated the never-ending way for all people who are willing to put their trust in him. And, he supports people on this journey with eternal spiritual power—living water. (John 4:14)

Over the next days and months I remained faithful to those early morning hours, reading and praying for His Word to work its will in me. And,I began to notice some changes.

A profound, unexplainable feeling of joy was filling my empty spaces. It was like holding a drinking glass under the faucet and watching the clear liquid takeover the space inside its transparent walls. It was like the words I'd read, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11, NIV)

How is this joy made complete? As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. (John 15:9-10, NIV )

Ok. So now we get to the fine print. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15: 12-13, NIV)

His command is to love each other. I wonder how that works out in earthy neighborhoods? I would soon find out one day while driving home from school.

I pulled over, onto the gravely shoulder and applied my right foot to the brake. I sat still for a moment to let the adrenaline rush settle down. I said out loud to myself, "Why am I doing this?"

I'd been rushing to school each morning and, then with great abandon rushing back home at the end of the day. I was finding  no small amount of satisfaction in trying to shorten my travel time each day.

In my earthy neighborhood other people were taking up space on the road, sometimes going slow and holding me up. All kinds of nasty thoughts about them had occupied my brain.

Here I was, camped out on the side of the road, questioning this whole routine. Where was that coming from?

When I moved back onto gray pavement this question kept getting in the way of my normal thinking.My command is to love each other.

I put this thought to work while driving the next day—after my early morning journey into the Bible and prayer. Okay. Let's help each other get down the road rather than engaging in a road race.

I intentionally put my attitude into a grace-mode. Me, your new patient road helper was now showing his face through the front window. Joy was expressing a whole new sensation.

What were other people experiencing, who were taking Jesus up on his offer to live his way—in the never-ending way?

In the next three chapters we'll experience, up close and personal, some grace-mode life stories. These three stories continue to motivate me to push the edit button on my travel plans.