Most people don’t feel thirsty because they lack options, but because none of the options presented to us in the world actually works. We live in a world overflowing with consumption opportunities and outlets. Life is busy and entertainment is ubiquitous. We fill our time, but what about our souls?
There’s a famous quote from Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Now that’s a diagnosis of our world, today, restless.
In John 7, Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths–also called Tabernacles or Sukkot. On the final and climactic day of the feast, a priest drew water from the Pool of Siloam, carried it to the Temple and poured it on the altar, praying for rain, a fruitful harvest, and the renewing work of God’s Spirit.
By the time of Jesus, this ritual had taken on deeper meaning. It had become a symbol of end-time hope–the longing for salvation and the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit envisioned in passages like Ezekiel 47 and Zechariah 14. In that moment, Jesus stood up and said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37b-28 ESV).
If anyone thirsts…. if anyone is restless… if anyone is longing for more… come to me.
It seems to me we live in a thirsty world. Success without significance feels hollow. Busyness without purpose feels exhausting. Achievement without transcendence feels thin. We try to quench our thirst with consumption, distraction, production, and activism. I’m thinking especially of the current riots in Minneapolis, though much of that is stirred up by anti-Western monied interests, much of the crowd’s yearning is for a just world, even if their conception of justice is skewed.
We’re thirsty. Our current life isn’t delivering. Our prosperity doesn’t fulfill. Our leaders aren’t leading us to paradise. We want more.
The problem is that the “more” we long for—meaning, belonging, renewal—cannot be drawn from the wells the world keeps offering. Those waters never satisfy. A restless, thirsty heart is only quenched at one source: the living water that flows from trusting Jesus Christ.
Jesus doesn’t scold a thirsty world; he invites it. He doesn’t shame restless hearts; he offers himself as the source of life they’ve been chasing everywhere else. The question, then, is not whether we’re thirsty—we are—but where we will drink. The world will keep offering cups that deliver disappointment. Jesus offers living water, and with it, a life that finally satisfies and overflows. The invitation still stands: If anyone thirsts… come to me.
Flourishing Life 
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