I love John 4.

The first half of the chapter zooms in on an outcast woman who encounters Jesus, and it changes everything.

This woman has been married five times and is with yet another man that she is not married to. She has an identity issue. She is continually trying to find hope, security, and acceptance in guys, and it is just not going to happen! Granted she likely has few other options as a first century Samaritan woman who culturally needs to be connected to a man to survive. However, to me that just amplifies the reality that when everything around us screams that life is found in earthly things (sex, possessions, etc...), we must cling to the Lord and figure out how to pursue him in everything.

As their conversation ends, the woman heads back into town and starts exclaiming to her neighbors, "Come! See a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?!"

There's a great scene in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" where John Candy and Steve Martin are unaware that they are driving down the expressway towards oncoming traffic. Another car comes alongside them and screams, "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!!!" But John Candy sloughs it off saying, "How do they know which way we're going?" The scene ends in a near-death experience as the men squeeze between two oncoming semi-trucks.

This woman becomes the one of the first people to point others to Christ! One of the first evangelists! She doesn't know a whole lot about Jesus, but she now realizes that she has been headed one way and after encountering Christ she has found new hope and new direction!

My prayer is that my identity would be found in Christ, and that I would be known for an overflow of joy and hope that comes from security in the Lord. May this be true of you as well...