While we look for IT.....

There is an African story about Takeyo that I can’t quite remember was out of which story book. Takeyo was an old man whose job was to take care of the young kids while the rest of the family went out to till the land. One day he ate a piece of liver that was EXTRAORDINARILY sweet. You know the finger licking kind of good. Only one problem though, he didn’t know whose liver he had eaten. So he started randomly killing animals to find the source.  Well it took him killing a lot of stuff including birds, cats, dogs, but didn’t quite get that taste. So this one day he was left with young kids as usual while the rest went to till the land. So he lured one kid to his hut and killed him/her and took out the liver and roasted it and walla that was IT. That was the liver he had eaten a long time ago and had been looking for all this time. So he continued to kill the kids one by one for the liver until one day he was found out.....

Many a times in our day to day lives we look for the IT but don’t quite get it because we do not know exactly what IT is, or where to find it.... IT here could mean a great relationship, a great career, children, success, education anything that you think is gonna fulfill your PURPOSE on earth. 

A story is told in the bible of a woman who broke an alabaster jar at the feet of Jesus. This story is retold in Mark 14:3, Mathew 26: 6-13 and John 12. But I love the John version of the story and this is what I am gonna use as my reference. This alabaster jar contained VERY expensive perfume. Infact a whole year’s wage equivalent of perfume. Can you imagine saving up for like forever to buy something then just breaking it at someone’s feet? 

I love eternity moment by CK when you look at the bottle it doesn’t look very attractive wait until you smell what's in there, HEAVENLY, well at least in my opinion. Can you imagine if I gave you that CK bottle and you didn’t open it, well you would just look at it and wonder what’s in there without ever finding out, infact the bottle looks so simple so you would probably think I have no taste for perfumes.

Well that’s how we live. We are all unique alabaster jars but we either hold on afraid to shatter for the sweet essence to be released or we break them at the wrong feet. Most of the time we break the jar tying so hard to conform to certain patterns of the world or trying to find the IT. Two perspectives here, those who hold on to the jar too afraid to break and those who break it in all the wrong places! 

I broke my jar a million times! First I broke my jar after high school trying to find the right college, then after school trying to find the right job then I hopped from job to job trying to find the IT. Then I met this man and I was like this is IT and broke my jar again at his feet but several years down the line I became empty again because I did it for all the wrong reasons and picked up my jar and waited to break it again else where. Before that, I broke the jar in clubs, in bars, in chamas, in church and every time I thought I found IT I still walked around all empty.

Then I met Jesus. I collected all the pieces of my jar and brought them to his feet. It is interesting to note that when the women broke their alabasters they met resistance from people around then. Speaking in loud voices asking each other why waste such an expensive perfume. You would have sold and given to the poor and all that kind of talk. Yes I also STILL face a lot of resistance from people around me, they keep wondering why I am so INTO JESUS, when there is ‘cooler stuff’ out there, that am wasting my life and that I have become so boring. HERE IS THE NEWS there are so many JUDASeS trying to bring distraction in your walk with GOD. (John 12: 4 - But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5"Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?"…emphasis mine) . But one thing I KNOW is that I finally found my IT by breaking my alabaster at HIS FEET.

Pure worship can only come out of a person who has given the most expensive thing; HIS ENTIRE LIFE. It costs something i,e your time your energy and your attention, even your social life. There is a price to pray to fellowship with GOD.

Stop holding on to your alabaster jar, stop trying to find the IT, just allow the LORD to break you, to rip you out of this world and all that it has become. TO break your heart for what breaks HIS, to burn to the ground the idols you have built, to break your pride, your lust, your unrighteousness, your  love for what HE hates, just allow him to break you then he can mould you into what he had CREATED you to be initially. The only way the BEST is gonna come from you is if you break that alabaster. Then we can smell that sweet perfume that you have been hiding.  

Famous quote: Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness, speak cheering words while their ears can hear and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happeir by them.