When Christ spoke with the woman at the well in Samaria, He promised to Her that He could give unto her Living Water. I believe that "living" describes not only the innate qualities of the Living Water, but also for what purpose it is to be used. What I mean by that is that what makes the Living Water living is not just that the Water itself is lively and not dead or stagnant. The Living Water is living because it is the water that is intended to be used for those who are living. The woman at the well misunderstood this. When Christ said that if she received the water He would give her, she would never thirst again, she thought that this meant that she could stop struggling, stop trudging back and forth to the well in the heat of the day, stop having to worry about taking care of her bodily and spiritual needs. To her, and to many of us, the idea of taking one drink and never having to thirst again seems like paradise - no more thirst, no more pain or toil, no second guessing or backtracking. In essence, no more living. Isn't this what we all secretly want, at least in part, from living the gospel? Lord tell me which commandments to keep so that I never have to worry about falling off the path again. Lord tell me how many times must I forgive before I can move on to the revenge part. Lord, help me get my family members to baptism or the mission or temple marriage so I can stop worrying about them. Lord help thou my unbelief so that I never have to doubt again. All of these and more are versions of the woman at the well's plea to Jesus to give her the living waters so she never has to be thirsty or come back to the well to draw water. Our only experience with those who never have to thirst again is the dead, and so we imagine for ourselves a future in which, essentially, we are dead. Because to live is to struggle, and so, to imagine a future without struggle is to imagine a future in which we are no longer living. But the Living Water that Jesus Christ offers us is for the Living. When He promises that we will never thirst again, He is not promising that we will never struggle again. He is not saying that we will no longer be tried or tested, that we will never tremble because of pain, or weep because of loss, or stagger under the load that we carry. What He is promising is that we never have to feel like we are struggling alone, or that no one understands what we are going through, or cares not if we perish. We will still face trials with the Living Water inside us, but we will do so knowing that our Savior is by our side, and He will lift up our hands that hang down, and strengthen our feeble knees, and wipe away the tears from our eyes, and sweep us up in the arms of His Redeeming Love. I'm sure that after that memorable day when the Savior calmed the winds and the seas, there were other occasions where the Apostles were with the Savior on the sea of Galilee when the storms hit, and maybe they had to fight just as hard for their survival, but they did not thirst, because they had within them the Living Water of the knowledge that their Master did care if they perished or not, and if the storm got to be too much for them to handle, then they knew that He had the power to calm the storms and the sea. The Living Water is for living. We have free and unrestricted access to it every second of every day. It does not stop bad or hard things from happening to us. It does not rob us of our chance to struggle and prove ourselves and to live. But it does give us the strength to put one foot in front of the other when all hope has failed, and all of our friends have abandoned us, and our survival seems anything but certain. Drinking from the Living Water gives us the confidence that we will keep on living through each and every one of our trials no matter how dark or dire the situation gets, and that our Savior will be by our side every step of the way and He will calm the storms if they threaten to overwhelm us. I know that Living Water is for living, and I hope that none of us ever lose our thirst for life, even with all of its struggles and heartaches.
