“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis

In the fall of 2015, I left for a semester abroad in The Netherlands- - the land of waffles, bicycles, and very tall humans. For me, going abroad was a dream come true. Ever since middle school, I’d dreamed of leaving the “boring” world of my hometown behind, to embark on some grand adventure in far away places. It finally felt like I was watching that adventure unfold.

My daydreams painted abstract pictures of far away mountaintops holding strange new peoples living in foreign lands with hidden wonders. Surely among those mountaintops, I could satisfy my hunger for “more.”

And so finally, I found a way to embark on my “grand adventure:” studying abroad. It was an experience I would recommend to any student, as it has changed the way I will see the world forever, and enriched my life so very deeply.

During that semester I visited 16 countries, lived out of a backpack for weeks, swam in the Mediterranean with local Italians, took night trains, slept in hostels, got lost in foreign countries, saw Europe’s great wonders -- from the Cliffs of Moher to the Coliseum -- ate some of its best food and even learned a bit of Dutch. I shared belly-deep laughter and soul-deep conversation with the best of friends as we navigated our way across Europe, and I wouldn’t trade a minute of it.

But I also learned that the soul-deep desire for that “more” from life is the same in Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands as it is in one’s suburban childhood home. There were moments of thrills, and there was certainly awe, as well as deep gratitude for my travels, but my grand adventure did not satisfy the hunger that I’d always hoped it would.

And so I reflected to myself, over the course of many long train rides and foreign sunsets, it truly must be God that satisfies. I felt that I had discovered a great secret. One that I already knew but had not yet known. A secret that you might never completely believe until you find it out for yourself. Upon reflection, I was reminded of the story of the woman at the well:

It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him,“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 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 livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, 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 has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”– John 4:6-26

There’s a lot going on in this story, so let’s break it down. Take a moment to look at this woman. She is a Samaritan, and thus separated from the Jews. There is a life out there that she is kept from. There are people out there that have something she lacks, perhaps something she longs for, but she is not allowed to have it. Also, notice that this woman has had five husbands, and is with someone now who is not her husband. This is clearly someone who is searching for something, and not finding it. The Woman at the well has a hunger, a “more," that is not satisfied.

Jesus addresses all of this at the well, and he offers himself up as the solution. First of all, Jesus, the Jew, reaches out to this Samaritan woman and invites her in. In doing so, he breaks down the wall that has separated her from the life she’s desired. Then there is the water. Just like her emotional desire that has driven her from marriage to marriage, the woman has a physical thirst that is sated for a moment only to return. Jesus offers her water that will never leave her thirsty, himself. For the woman at the well, and for each of us, Jesus is the bridge to the unreachable life and the forever satisfier of the insatiable thirst.

I expect that God will continue to take me on many great adventures. Why? Because he made me, he knows my heart, and he is a good Father who loves to give good gifts to his children. But I will never be satisfied until I realize that those gifts are not the ultimate end. He is the ultimate end. I know that my heart cannot be so different from everyone else’s, though this desire might manifest itself differently in each person. Where are you searching for your “more”? I pray that you can come to realize the great secret that Jesus is the satisfier of your soul, now and forever.

...

This article is dedicated to the best travel buddies a girl could ask for. Here's to eating our way through Europe, sleeping in yurts, night trains, hostels, and train stations, 30,000 steps a day, crashing German birthday parties, discovering roadless towns, Dutch square dancing, countless waffle runs, soul-deep conversation and belly-deep laughter.