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I always learn something new when I read John 4: The story of the Samaritan woman. Recently I started rereading the entire Bible, and instead of beginning with Genesis or Matthew, I began with John. If you’ve been planning to start reading the Bible in a year or two, it’s okay to start with the New Testament. Trust me, when you get to where God starts giving instructions for the tabernacle in the book of Exodus, you’ll wish you started with the New Testament. LOL. And John is an excellent book if you’re beginning your journey in Christ.

Anyway, back to the pretty lady carrying her water jugs to the well…

This Samaritan woman. She’s already had five husbands and is living with someone who is not her husband. The Bible doesn’t go into details about her past, but if you’ve had five marriages and are living with a man who is not your husband, then there’s probably something too shameful to discuss here. Yet God arranged a meeting at Jacob’s well on this special day for her. Little did she know that her life was going to be changed forever. There are so many things I love about this story.

What strikes me the most about this story, as I read it today, is the case of the unlikely evangelist. This woman is one of the countless examples of how God can pick anyone and make them a vessel. She meets Jesus and goes back and forth with Him about tradition, worship and life-giving water. Then Jesus looks at her and reveals the most private parts of her life. There and then, she sees that Jesus sees her more deeply than anyone else. He knows her struggles.

She runs to the town and immediately and tells everyone. She became an evangelist. But it didn’t end there. The people she told came seeking Jesus for themselves.

“And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
John 4:39-42 NKJV

Another topic this chapter highlights is the need to seek God for yourself. Yes, they heard the woman’s testimony. But after that, they came desiring to know Jesus. They spent time with Him and said “we ourselves have heard Him”. It’s not enough to hear someone’s testimony or listen to a preacher. You must desire Jesus and seek Him for yourself to know Him.

The Samaritan woman met Jesus at Jacob’s well. I pray that each of us will find our Jacob’s well. It might be on the bus, on your way to ward rounds, in the gym, in a casual meeting, or at any place. I pray that we, like this woman, will at one point(or several points in our lifetime) meet Jesus. And like her, we will run to the town, our classes, our friends, as far as our feet will take us, and tell everyone about Him. And that on our account, people will seek Him and believe in Him. Amen.

I stopped writing totally. Or at least I told myself I wasn’t going to write anymore. I decided, on the spur-of-the-moment, to log in to my WordPress app and erase my site from the face of the earth( saying this makes it sound so dramatic. lol). I was going through something(I would say a combination of so many factors which I might discuss in subsequent posts) that made me sabotage a lot of things I had going on in my life, including the blog.

The good news is I’m back because God has given me a second chance(actually, it’s the 56384997th chance, but who’s counting).

I’ve brought back the old pieces and am excited about the future. SB 2.0. Enjoy<3

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” -The Man In The Arena, Theodore Roosevelt.

My perspective has changed a lot on what it means to be vulnerable. I used to think vulnerability was weakness and the things that made us feel vulnerable( uncertain, exposed and emotionally at risk) needed to be buried away under lock and key and avoided at all costs. But it’s far from that. Vulnerability is actually more courageous than we think. And being in situations that make us feel vulnerable and challenge us simultaneously are necessary for life. Because really, whoever did anything significant or courageous without some exposure. And that’s why I’ve come to love this excerpt from one of Theodore Roosevelt’s speeches.

Vulnerability is doing the hard thing. It’s coming out of your comfort zone and exerting yourself. It means laying yourself bare: not pretending or putting up some facade because that will lead you to deeper, meaningful relationships. In vulnerability, you don’t just risk failure; you experience it. But that’s what it means to be the man in the arena and to dare greatly. That’s what counts. Vulnerability to me is writing this blog post, even though I’m shaking inside because I believe that I have something to offer the world. Exposure to me is waking up every day and breathing( because if you know me, you know how much just living scares me sometimes). To me, it’s sharing my struggle with sadness, unworthiness, and pornography with others and how God’s love has always been the most important thing to get me through it. It’s walking to class after failing my Interim Assessment and striving to make a better grade at the end of the semester. It’s not being afraid to show I deeply care, love and get hurt in a world where all of these might be thought of as soft or too emotional.

For some of you, vulnerability is showing up to write a resit or retake a class you failed and being brave through the period. It may be showing your authentic self and being courageous about it. It may be accepting to pursue your purpose, beginning work to achieve your goals, starting that business, sharing your story, submitting your resume for a new job, or applying for a school program despite previous rejections and failures. Because the truth is, if you’re so scared to know failure, you’ll never know success. If you’re afraid that you’ll fall, you’ll never rise, and if you’re scared of getting hurt, you’ll never know the happiness that comes with love. To be vulnerable is to be the man in the arena.

So I’ll conclude this piece in the words of Brené Brown, whose talks on courage, shame and vulnerability inspired this post. “Vulnerability is hard, and it’s scary and it feels dangerous. But it’s not as hard as getting to the end of our lives and having to ask ourselves: what if I would have shown up?…Show up, be seen, answer the call to courage and come off the blocks. You’re worth it. You’re worth being brave”.

Oh, and before you go, please leave a comment on what vulnerability means to you. You might encourage someone to also show up and be seen!

This post was originally published on January 14th, 2021.