Beauty MarksSample

Beauty that has a Jar of Oil


One of the hardest questions any one has to answer is also the simplest one: “How can I help you?” Didn’t you ever feel like this makes you want to hyperventilate? Help me? I don’t need helping. I am a strong, independent woman in the 21st century. I can help myself, thank you very much.

So when somebody asks us, “what can we do? Can we change the status quo?” the first thought that enters our mind is usually, “It’s good. I got this.” Even if we don’t. And we wave that “little thing” at whomever it was who asked and go, “I can suffer longer.”

That, my dear friends, is how I entered despair. I’m guilty of being unable to answer basic questions like “how can I help you?” My instinctive answer when somebody asks me if I need help is to say “no, I’m fine, thank you,” and excuse myself by saying I’m just being polite. I just don’t want to inconvenience anyone.

And I’m guilty of despairing. Of taking a look at my closet and thinking “that’s not enough.” Of taking a look at my job and thinking, “this isn’t enough.” Of taking a look in the mirror and saying, “right, why did I look in here again?” I’m guilty of despairing, because it seems that every day I allow thoughts such as “Your servant has nothing there at all” to enter my mind.

Join me in a mental exercise, sister. Look at something tangible out there, like a tree, or the bright blue sky above you, or even the table that’s closest to you right now. That table, tree, and sky is made out of something.

Now imagine that a great God created that table, tree and sky from absolutely nothing.

Will it change the way we answer that question now? “What do you have there in your house?”

Right now? I have only this: my life, barely able to make ends meet, barely able to scratch the surface of my heart’s desire. Maybe you have a small talent, or this outrageous dream for a better future, or even just a jar of oil in your home.

That’s all right, isn’t it? If a great God can make this universe out of nothing, imagine what He can do with that jar of oil, with that heart’s desire, or with that outrageous dream and a small talent.

What do you have there in your house (heart, mind) right now? I bet it’s waiting to be the basic ingredient for a Godly miracle.