Author: Paul Nordman

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It Is What It Is, or Is It?

It was yet another family member trip to the hospital, which, of course, portended more medical bills in the mailbox. His circumstance unchangeable, my friend sighed in disgust, “Oh well, it is what it is.” Overhearing him from the other room, his wife called back in a more optimistic tone, “But it’s not what it will be!” Pithy and profound, her rejoinder was the just the encouragement he needed to hear. They’ve re-told the story often in the ensuing years.

For woman at the well, “It is what it is,” was well-known at the time and remains well-chronicled today. By her own account, her very existence had begun two social rungs below that of the tired and thirsty stranger seated before her and seeking her help—“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”1 Living with a man not her husband, a fact she tried to conceal, dropped her another step down toward defeat in a frustrating life-game of Chutes and Ladders. Surely this was not the “happily ever after” of her earlier dreams, nor was it the fullness of Jesus’ plan for her. Of all people, it was this woman, mired in her “It is what it is” to whom He first revealed Himself as the Messiah—“I who speak to you am he,”2 Jesus told her. And from unsearchable depths, He offered her “living water,”3 a quenching of the soul from which she would never thirst again, a “spring of water welling up into eternal life.”4 “Sir, give me this water,”5 she accepted. Her “is what it is” was no longer; her “what it will be” had come.

We tend to view the Samaritan woman as she was on her way to the well that day, but this is not the same person who returned to her village, nor would it ever be again. Messiah changes things, and not merely so, for He makes us new. “If anyone is in Christ,” proclaimed Paul, “the new creation has come: The old has gone and the new is here!”6 Our sin patterns no longer define us—this is true of the woman who left the well, and it is true of us. We have met the Messiah, and we, like she, are new; we are different than when we came. Let no one persuade us otherwise.

Father, thank you for making me a new person in Christ. Help me to trust your faithfulness, your goodness, and your eternal care as you continue to make me like Him. In His name I pray. Amen.

1 John 4:9
2 John 4:26
3 John 4:10
4 John 4:14
5 John 4:15
6 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21

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Something Better

Shortly into their marriage, my mother and father faced a minor dilemma; it concerned card games. Both of them enjoyed this recreational blend of socializing and strategy, but there was just one hitch: Dad liked pinochle, and Mom enjoyed bridge. Neither had played the other game before, so they agreed to try each one together and then decide which to pursue as a couple. They joined friends for bridge first, and on the way home, my father said, “We can forget pinochle.” He would let go of his old pastime, for he had found something better.

It is human nature to favor the familiar; we shed old paradigms only when that which is superior shines brighter by comparison. Such was the case with the woman at the well. Their repartee about bodily thirst and social propriety now behind them, her conversation with Jesus turned to deeper matters of the spirit, and as it did, she scurried for safety in trusted traditions. When He revealed Himself to be the source of living water, she replied, “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”1 Then upon perceiving herself in the presence of a prophet, she doubled down in discomfort, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”2

People around the globe and throughout time find comfort in their traditions, yet when these sources of identity become fortresses of retreat and hiding places from Truth, we miss the person of Jesus Christ—the purity of His soul, the fullness of His character and His grand plans for us. He comes to us “not … to condemn the world, but to save the world.”3 He engages us in everyday life through activities as simple as a genuine conversation beside an old well. It was there that a woman saw beyond mountains that divide and cities that separate and to a unifying place where “true worshipers … worship the Father in spirit and truth.”4 It was enough—she was beginning to change, for she had found something better, and leaving her water jar and paradigms behind, she went to tell others about Jesus. Her witness continues today, assuring He will engage us, too, as we leave the safety of our old ways and trust in the One who secures us in Himself.

Father, we are humbled before the openness of the woman at the well. Grace us also to leave behind any comfortable thing that would keep us from trusting entirely in your Son. In His name we pray. Amen.

1 John 4:11, 12
2 John 4:20
3 John 3:17
4 John 4:23

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Demoted

Who in his day would have predicted Zacchaeus to endure as one of the more endearing characters in the Biblical record? Children gleefully sing of this “wee, little man,” and his determination and enthusiasm warm hearts of every age. Beyond all the feel-good facets of his testimony, however, there is something about it that leaves us a bit unsettled, isn’t there? It’s the money. His eagerness to submit everything to God can leave us examining our willingness to do the same.

Can we all just assume that, upon waking that pivotal day, there was, in Zacchaeus’ mind, no thought, no inclination, nor even the possibility of the joyful generosity for which he is now known? Money was his master—the insatiable god of a calloused life—for this tax collector had amassed his fortune by gouging others, rising as faithfully as the sun to pursue still more by detestable means. Yet on this day, his mind was elsewhere: he “wanted to see who Jesus was,”1 and by nightfall, he had. Zacchaeus called Him, “Lord!”2 and with everything he had, he would serve a new God, the true God.

Jesus once observed, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”3 yet of his wealthy host He declared, “Today salvation has come to this house.”4 How did this happen? What moved Zacchaeus to choose this new path in the opposite direction? In Jesus, he had encountered an engaging God who knew his name and desired his company.5 In Christ, he had met a humble God who would suffer from the crowd a rejection He did not deserve in order to show mercy to this man whose rejection was well-earned.6 On mission to see who Jesus was, Zacchaeus found that Jesus knew him well and that He had come to seek and to save him, “the lost.”7 He had seen who Jesus was, and he “received him joyfully.”8 What was money now but something to be submitted to God for His glory?

Transformation begins with “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”9 His Spirit moves in us, softening the heart that knows it is loved, sharpening the mind that knows Who is true, and strengthening our will “to work for his good pleasure.”10 Jesus is worth far more than anything we have, and we can trust Him with everything we are.

If I give away all I have, … but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:3)

Father, I cannot fathom all you’ve done for me, but I can praise you for it. Change my heart into one that does as you lead me to do, submitting everything to you, always in gratitude and joy. Be my Lord. Amen.

1 Luke 19:3
2 Luke 19:8
3 Luke 18:24
4 Luke 19:9
5 Luke 19:5
6 Luke 19:7
7 Luke 19:10
8 Luke 19:6 ESV
9 Colossians 1:27
10 Philippians 2:13 ESV