I don't know if you've ever been desperately thirsty. It has only happened to me a couple of times.

Once when I was on a football team in school, I became so dehydrated that I couldn't swallow. I couldn't even speak. No one knew what was wrong. When I was finally offered some water I grabbed it almost viciously. Those first few sips created one of the greatest sensations of relief I'd ever experienced.

In today's Gospel reading for the First Scrutiny (Cycle A), Jesus meets a woman at a well, looking for water. Jesus offers her "living water," saying, "Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

"Sir, give me this water," the woman replies, "so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." It is an attractive offer --- something so satisfying and fulfilling as to erase our need for more. When you're thirsty, you never want to be thirsty again. When you're hungry, you never want to be hungry again.

Of course, Jesus is talking about more than just slaking our physical thirst. He is talking about a source of life that is never-ending and never-changing. There are many things we hunger and thirst for --- love, peace, friendship, security.

If you're like me, you easily become focused on immediate needs. I need a job. I need a home. I need to meet the needs of my family. I want to be a good provider, a good husband and parent, a successful employee. These are, of course, important needs for any individual or family. These are often the things I turn to in order to make myself feel strong or important.

But there are deeper needs that we must attend to. The sources we often go to in order to satisfy ourselves will someday dry up. We know that there isn't enough money, status, beauty, relationships or career satisfaction in the world to meet our deepest hungers and thirsts. Yet we go to these sources, hoping that the next bucket we pull up from the well will finally make us happy.

Lent is a time for us to examine and listen to our deepest thirsts and hungers, and to turn to God to satisfy them. God offers infinite, unconditional love --- something no person, thing or achievement can provide. How do we turn the deeper need for acceptance and approval over to God?

In my case, I need to get desperate --- as desperate as I was for water at my football practice, as desperate as the woman at the well is for health and healing. It is when I experience the bankruptcy of my alternative sources of life and joy and satisfaction --- the people, status symbols, possessions that make me feel important --- that I acknowledge my need for something more real and more lasting. That is when I turn to God.

I should learn to turn to God sooner --- first, not last. Perhaps one day I will.

Today, this third Sunday of Lent, I find myself craving that living water, and praying, like the woman at the well, "Sir, give me this water."

Bill Peatman writes from Napa.