how we fall short of the Savior we could have

In his account of the gospel, John records a story where Jesus talked with a woman getting water.  We know she led a busy life and had experienced broken marriages.  She lived in a city whose the culture did not esteem women and which was peppered with the rules & relics of religion.  In fact, she sounds like a lot of Americans today - especially in our (and her) response(s) to the person of Christ: 

1)  We want it selfishly for our best life now.  (v. 15, "The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water") Note that her "best life" included avoiding suffering, particularly the social reprecussions of "having to come here to draw water," where she was probably judged for her litany of husbands. 

2)  We try to lessen our shortcomings in fear of disqualification, when it is in fact those shortcomings that qualify us.  (v. 17-18, "The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.")

3)  We test Him - particularly his Sovereignty.  We ask, "Does He really understand all the intricacies? Does he have all the answers?"  (v. 19-20, "The woman said to him, 'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.'")

4)  We let what we hear remain a concept, put it in a box labelled 'psychological foreclosure,' and refuse to let it interact with our experience.  Even after Jesus had addressed her every contention, "The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.'" (v. 25) 

"Being right with God is not a matter of debate but a matter of life and death.  I've got to get right with God and that is why I need Christ.  Having a church whose focus is being right with God is a matter of heaven's touch coming down.  All this happens when sin is not viewed as being heinous."           Jared Wilson, 22 Feb 2011