“When I move, it will all be different,” I heard my friend say.

Hoping to leave her hurt behind in Pennsylvania, she packed her bags for sunny Florida. But I knew even a new home couldn’t solve all her problems.

Can you relate to my friend? In your current circumstances, life feels empty. You begin to consider all the changes you wish you could make. Maybe if I were married, had more money or had a better job, I would feel happy. Maybe if I lived somewhere else, I would feel at peace.

This thought process reminds me of the woman in the fourth chapter of John. We don’t know much about her—except that she is from Samaria and has a total of five husbands. On her way to draw water with an empty jar from a well outside her town, she encounters Jesus (John 4:7) and talks with him.

During their conversation, Jesus tells her, “Those who drink this water will get thirsty again, but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life” (John 4:13-14, GNTD).

At the end of their conversation, the woman sets her jar on the ground and runs back into town to share what she learned. She came to the well with an empty jar—and left with eternal life through faith in Jesus, life that overflowed to her neighbors (John 4:28-42).

As I think about my friend’s decision to pack up and head south, I see her standing at the well with an empty jar. She has tried to find peace by changing things in her life, by searching for “greener grass.” But her jar is still empty. As I watch her seek happiness through a new job, through a chance to start over, I long for her to experience Jesus’ life-giving water.

If life feels empty today, and you’re ready to pack up and move, reflect on these four Bible verses:

  1. Psalm 36:9 (GNTD)
    You are the source of all life, and because of your light we see the light.
  2. Romans 15:13 (GNTD)
    May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.
  3. John 10:10 (GNTD)
    The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life – life in all its fullness.
  4. Colossians 3:12a (CEV)
    God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people.