I know a particular person who gives gifts everywhere she goes. She gives roses to teachers, gave me journals, and flowers to so many other people. She is a gifted in giving gifts.
Is she trying to make me look bad? She is so impressive!
I am an independent student, a backpack loaded with books and a to-do list times one thousand unsettled debts. Going out to buy gifts feels as impossible as getting a camel through the eye of a needle.
Giving is a thing I always want to do and I’ve always liked, but it takes a back seat in my life. Not because I don’t want to but because circumstances don’t permit me.
It's something that I love to get, but have a hard time extending.
I know it blesses, but it also heightens my stresses.
Yet, research and careful study has proven that giving:
- increases the health of people with chronic illnesses…………
- reduces the risk of dying in the elderly after volunteering………..
- lowers stress and blood pressure………………….
Clearly giving is a wonderful thing. The more we outpour the more that in pours to us. Remember, the only way something can enter your palm is if it is open. An open hand is ready to receive.
A woman came with a special sealed jar. It contained very expensive perfume made out of pure nard. She broke the jar open and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head. Mark. 14:3
This woman poured a ton - probably a year's worth of salary. Her deep sacrifice was a true outpouring of her heart. There is no mention of the kids screaming at home, the wipes in her bag or the lists of things she had to do, she just poured out.
When we set our eyes on Jesus,
suddenly our excuses grow small and our cause grows big.
This woman poured out great love through this great gift,
a great sacrifice for a great and mighty God
and a great example for the great, great, great...followers of Jesus today.
What would happen if we poured out like she did?
Would Jesus say to us: "She has done a beautiful thing to me"...Mark 14:6
Would our name be more greatly etched into the world and for eternity?
"What she has done will be told anywhere the good news is preached all over the world. It will be told in memory of her.” Mark 14:9
As she stood...weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Luke 7:38
When we pour, like this woman and then our hearts melt like wax. The wick of our pride, selfishness and complacency melt down to the ground, leaving us on our knees, where we receive and give our very best. We take our hair and we wipe the feet of others (believer or otherwise). We get into the tight corners and spots, into the places where it feels uncomfortable, into the places where we prepare others for a new life.
It's in the offering of our greatest - in the wiping of the dirty - that we get to kiss the feet of the one who walked into desolate dry hearts to make abundant new life.
If and as at when we touch these needy, unseen and untouchable places with our greatest gift, love, we find our hearts are restored.
We’d find it's so much less about the other and so much more about Jesus reconfiguring our vision.
We find deeper connection with the recipient and with the one who is all sufficient in doing exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask for.