I remember years ago, I was part of a community in a local church that had some specific needs. The church couldn’t meet those needs because they didn’t have the budget. As I watched the needs grow, I knew I had to do something, and I wrote a check for what at the time was a significant amount of money specifically to help this community.
I remember the sense of anticipation and excitement as I handed the check to the pastor and explained some of the needs I had been seeing in the group and how the money could help. He was grateful, and I walked away encouraged, glad to be part of what I felt God wanted to do within the community. The gift had really cost me something; it was an act of worship.
Months rolled by, and I noticed the needs in the group were still unmet. I patiently waited for something to change, someone to do something. Nothing happened. I finally went to the leadership and asked why did we still have these needs in our community? They said they didn’t have the money to help.
But I made a donation. I wrote a check.
The response was, “The leadership decided to spend the money on something else.”
I was crushed. What began as a fragrant offering, a gift of worship, soured in my frustration, anger, and disappointment.
In our lives, there are moments that we feel compelled to do something extravagant for God, and things don’t turn out like we expect.
The response isn’t what we hoped for.
We’re misunderstood.
We walk away feeling judged.
The very thing we give ends up costing us more than we expect.
Mary’s extravagant act of worship in John 12 reminds us that God wants our relationship with him to be lived out of desire rather than out of duty. In other words, God longs for us to long for him. In the beauty of his presence, we can’t help but find our affections set on God, our hearts captivated by his love. Caught up in the delight of God, our natural response is worship—words of thanks that roll off the tongue, songs of adoration that spring from the heart, acts of extravagance.
For Mary, things didn’t turn out like she expected. Though the guests were clearly not who she had made the offering for, she couldn’t ignore their response. She had felt the twinge of being hurt. Misunderstood. Judged. In a brief moment of self-awareness, she may have even second-guessed her decision, What have I done?
I don’t know about you, but there have been times when I have tried to give my best, in an act of adoration, love, and extravagance to God, and I’ve found myself second guessing and wondering, What have I done?
The story of Mary reminds us that we will all encounter beautiful moments in life when we are motivated by a love of God that we cannot contain. At times we will be caught off guard by the response of others—the criticism, the judgment, the feelings of being misunderstood and second-guessing.
May you find yourself unable to hold back your adoration, love and worship of God, offering up your best and most beautiful to Him.
This week we dove into John 12-17. You can catch up on this week, here.
FOR DISCUSSION: Answer the following questions as a comment to this blog post. Feel free to ask questions, reply to others’ comments, and post prayer requests.
- When it comes to having a servant heart, are you a HUMBLE SERVANT or ROYALTY? How would you describe your behavior toward your family? Toward your co-workers or classmates? At your church?
- Although we can’t go around offering to wash the feet of everyone we know, we can make small decisions every day to serve others. What is one specific thing you are going to do to serve others this week?
Link up your blog post on what God is revealing to you in His Word.
Join us in TWO weeks (on July 8th) as we begin Session 5: Mistakes that Refine Instead of Define (John 18-19). Enjoy the holiday week and take time to catch up on DVD lessons and afterhours studies you have fallen behind on. Click here to subscribe to the RSS feed and receive each day’s post in your inbox each morning.
Don’t miss out on the Midday Connection Podcast interview as we chat through Session One at 12PM Central today. Click here, to subscribe to their podcast each week.
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It’s not too late to join the online #SummerBibleStudy at MargaretFeinberg.com through John and Genesis. Click here to learn more.
