God’s Anointment and My Hollowness
I have been thinking a lot lately about the story in Mark 14:1-10 of a woman who came to Jesus with an expensive jar of perfume which she then broke and poured on his head to anoint him. Analogously, the story reminds me that God’s breaking of the Jar on our heads comes with God’s Spirit being broken as he suffers for us, and then his love is poured into our souls allowing us to receive God’s anointment of peace and joy, through Christ Jesus.
But note what else is going on, as Christ allowed the woman, we must also allow this anointment to happen to us; so, we should not resist God’s breaking of his jar on our heads, as if we can do without it. We must therefore depend on God’s anointment and give ourselves up in the process. However, when I have prayed and meditated about my dependence and giving-up of myself, I have noticed that initially at least, it also leaves me a profound feeling of hollowness. Why? Because any good I do, and I am, is no longer because of me – my efforts, my striving, and my achievements – instead I must rely on God’s love to deliver these goods through me via his anointment! But what I have also discovered is that, through prayer and meditation, I can learn to acknowledge this hollowness more fully – to know it better and even sit with it – before I then invite God’s loving and spirit-filled abundance into my hollowness and fill it with his love, his glory, his peace, and his joy! Praise be to God!!
For details of my book, Nine Steps to Well-Being: A Spiritual Guide for Disconnected Christians and Other Questioning Journeyers go to my blog’s home page http://disconnectedchristians.blogspot.co.uk/ or to the publishers website ‘Whispering Tree Original Books’ where the first three chapters can be accessed FREE! http://www.whisperingtreeoriginalbooks.com/?page_id=40
But note what else is going on, as Christ allowed the woman, we must also allow this anointment to happen to us; so, we should not resist God’s breaking of his jar on our heads, as if we can do without it. We must therefore depend on God’s anointment and give ourselves up in the process. However, when I have prayed and meditated about my dependence and giving-up of myself, I have noticed that initially at least, it also leaves me a profound feeling of hollowness. Why? Because any good I do, and I am, is no longer because of me – my efforts, my striving, and my achievements – instead I must rely on God’s love to deliver these goods through me via his anointment! But what I have also discovered is that, through prayer and meditation, I can learn to acknowledge this hollowness more fully – to know it better and even sit with it – before I then invite God’s loving and spirit-filled abundance into my hollowness and fill it with his love, his glory, his peace, and his joy! Praise be to God!!
For details of my book, Nine Steps to Well-Being: A Spiritual Guide for Disconnected Christians and Other Questioning Journeyers go to my blog’s home page http://disconnectedchristians.blogspot.co.uk/ or to the publishers website ‘Whispering Tree Original Books’ where the first three chapters can be accessed FREE! http://www.whisperingtreeoriginalbooks.com/?page_id=40
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