the second week the Lord chose to show me just how weak i am and just how great He is. for three quiet times in a row, the Lord kept bringing up mary magdalen and her sister, martha. both girls served Jesus, but went about it in very different ways.
mary humbled herself and poured herself out at Jesus' feet... literally. she gave him her life savings: a jar of perfume she used to wash his feet. she broke open the nard and covered his feet with it, uncovering and unbraiding her hair and using it in place of a rag to spread the perfume along his feet. in ancient israel, a jar of nard like the one mary gave to her Master was worth at least an average person's yearly wages. she was literally pouring almost all that she had in savings at His feet. to the average person, this looked like a terrible waste. it's no wonder Jesus' disciples rebuked her when they saw this! they thought all the money should at least be given to the poor. she was wasting the modern day equivalent of $40,000 so this man's feet could smell good for a few hours!
mary wasn't just wasting money, she was being inappropriate in her wastefulness. in ancient israel, women were supposed to cover their hair in public. it was considered indecent to be seen with unbraided, uncovered hair. when she washed his feet with her naked hair, she was essentially taking off her outer clothing and washing her Lord with it. the religious leaders nearby were appalled. this woman needed to put her clothes back on!
yet Jesus commended her for this. He declared that we should all worship and adorn Him with the same extravagance and abandon.
this is how, the Lord showed me, we were supposed to lavish His love on these campers. we worked at least ten hours a day - often more - cleaning campers dishes, setting their tables to the centimeter, cutting their grass to the inch, setting up events for them, cleaning up after them, cleaning their rooms... and most of them never even consciously considered it. no one thought about how they were being given clean plates every meal. no one saw the bakers waking up at 6:30 every morning to bake for hundreds of people at a break-neck pace. when other people heard about our work, they thought we were being somewhat ridiculous. the camp took thousands of dollars in upkeep, and gave nothing to commerce, never gave any money specifically to those in poverty, and could have been used in millions of other ways the world would probably consider more "productive" or "religious". but we lavished love on those students. it was incredible to watch the change His love made on them. these kids, coming from thousands of different walks of life, carrying countless pounds of baggage, weighed down by untold amounts of pain, struggling with terrifying sin, were astounded at the depths of His love.
and then, mary did something even greater. when Jesus began to teach in her house, she simply sat at His feet and listened to what He had to say. she soaked Him in, and never worried about who she was or what she was. mary was a female. in her day, women weren't supposed to be allowed in the living room when men were having their "guy talks" or teachers were teaching. yet she simply stopped, and, even when everyone else was astonished at her audacity, simply let Jesus pour into her.
martha, her sister, also tried to serve Jesus. she washed and cleaned, attempting to make her house as suitable for her Master as possible. this was commendable work for a woman in ancient israel. she was doing the job that looked righteous, and was doing it with excellence! the men in her house would have looked at her as such a great woman, and the women in the house would have thought she was such a great example! but she became obsessed with her work. she allowed for Jesus to be in her house without attempting to be as close to Him as she could. she was no longer following Him, she was working for Him. it stopped being worship and service, and became a job, and a religious exercise. when she finally broke down and came to Him, complaining of how her sister wasn't helping, Jesus rebuked her.
the second week, my weakness and pride were shown to me very clearly. the first week, i had been reading in isaiah and a verse that the Lord put on my heart was isaiah 30:15
"this is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy One of israel says: 'in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,' but you would have none of it."
i couldn't get it out of my head. early in the second week, as i was having those quiet times, i found out why: was also beginning to find out just how weak i was.
i began to become obsessed with getting our work done, to the point where i was hurting my chances to encourage my friends or really pour into them. instead of slowing down and enjoying their company, i would move on to the next dish, or completely ignore them to get the job done. i was working at a break-neck pace, and other people, like my boss and some of the older staff around me, were commending me for working so hard. but, over time, it stopped being of the Lord. He brought to my mind just how much i was hurting and frustrating those around me in how i was approaching my work. that night, i finally hit my breaking point, realized i needed to get away for a while, repent, rest, be quiet and trust the Lord would do whatever i was attempting to do a whole lot better than i ever could. we all went up on a hill and had about twenty minutes of quiet while the campers went out and had some quiet time with their Maker.
on that hill, i was absolutely humbled at my own foolishness, sat still for the first time in days, and listened. He told me:
"be still and know that I am God."
every fiber in my being wanted to say something, but again, He just told me to be still and listen to what He was doing.
so when we started to pray together as a work crew and all i wanted to do was start speaking out loud, i held my mouth shut and listened, and friends who had struggled with talking with their Lord in a group before spoke in power and authority to their Father. and when we were asked as a group to talk about what the Lord was teaching us through our work and our bosses and each other, and all i wanted to do was speak, He told me again to be still. so i sat, and listened as prayers i had for my friends were answered before my eyes as they talked about how He was moving in their hearts. He never needed me to begin with!
so, just a real quick encouragement to pour yourself out for Him, lavish His love on those around you, and never get caught up in being a "good christian" or work. He loves you and those around you more than anything you do! God bless you guys and have an awesome week!
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