One of my favourite subjects in secondary school was economics. I remember being intrigued by the way the prices of products are determined by the law of supply and demand. The law states that the higher the price of a product or service, the lower the demand. On the other hand, the law of supply states that the higher the price of a product or service, the more incentive suppliers have to produce more. Of course these laws assume all other factors remain constant, in Latin, *ceteris paribus*.

Fundamental to these laws is the fact that human needs are insatiable while the resources to satisfy them are limited. This is where the problem of choice comes into play. Looking around today, we are constantly assaulted with a lot of products and services competing for our attention. The more we consume them, the more the desire to have a better product, a better service and a better experience. The question is, "at what point do we decide that we have enough?" I have come to the conclusion as I think of this subject, that the material things of this world will never be enough. We will always be asking for more and there will always be those who will push the boundaries to make more available.

If nothing in this world can ever satisfy us, does this mean we will be spending all our lives unsatisfied? I have found out thankfully, that we can indeed be satisfied if we look to the right place. There are many verses of scripture that point us to where we can find true satisfaction but the first one is from the words of Jesus spoken in the beatitudes: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6, ESV). Hunger and thirst is fundamentally what every human experiences. It is therefore quite instructive that the Lord Jesus used these two as tools to guide us to where we can find true satisfaction.

In John 4, Jesus was travelling through Samaria when he became tired and decided to sit near a well. Along came a Samaritan woman who came to draw water from the well. Jesus asked her for a drink and she was taken aback because Jews do not associate with Samaritans. In her curiosity she asked Jesus, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (John 4:9). As is usually a habit of Jesus, he did not respond to her question directly but responded to her deepest need: "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" (John 4:10). The conversation continues to the point where the woman eagerly requested Jesus to give her this water that He was talking about so she would not need to keep coming to the well to draw water.

To understand this desperate request from this woman, we need to follow the discussion between her and Jesus. Following her request for the water, Jesus told her to fetch her husband. She responded that she had no husband to which Jesus replied, "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" (John 4:17-18). 

Note that the Lord did not use an accusatory tone here. He was merely confirming the fact of her statement that she had no husband and went ahead to reveal the fact that she had previously had five husbands and was currently living with a man she was not married to. This woman had been living with the shame of her lifestyle and was probably being treated as a pariah in her community. She most likely came to the well at a time when no one was there just to avoid the looks and talks behind her back. When she met Jesus, she was no longer thirsty for the water from the well but for the living water.

True satisfaction comes from knowing and following Jesus. When this woman encountered Jesus, she forgot about how people felt about her. She rushed into town and called everyone to come and see the only one who can truly satisfy. The songwriter in Psalm 107:9 declared, "for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things." See those two words, "hunger" and "thirsty" used here again?

Just as the economists teach us that our material wants will never be fully satisfied by the limited resources of this world, we learn from scripture that our spiritual thirst can only be quenched by the limitless grace of God. The Samaritan woman discovered what we all need to discover: that every other well we go to will leave us coming back for more, but Jesus offers living water that satisfies eternally. 

The question for each of us is not whether we will thirst, but where we will go to quench that thirst. Will we continue drawing from wells that can never truly satisfy, or will we come to Jesus, the ultimate satisfier of our souls? The choice is ours, but the invitation remains open: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters" (Isaiah 55:1).