Her obituary read like many others; a picture of her at the top and underneath a listing of family members left to mourn her loss, names of other family members who had passed on before her and of course her birth date and date of death separated only with a short dash. 5 paragraphs encapsulated the 87 years spent on earth. Our lives intersected before the mid-way point of her dash.

the dash

Even as a young child I knew she cared. How? Fat birthday cards. Every year she taped sticks of Double Mint and Juicy Fruit gum to the left inside cover of my birthday card before mailing it out. She wrote a personal note telling me she was so happy it was my birthday, congratulating me on turning _ (whatever age I was turning) and a Bible verse. She finished by reminding me she was praying for me and signed off: Love Inez Pohl.

I didn’t know it at the time but she sent my cards sometimes up to 4 months early because the postal service to Tanzania was so unreliable. The vast majority of mail coming from Canada travelled across the ocean in a shipping container on a boat, and when it had finally cleared customs in Dar es Salaam was then trucked all over the country. Sending it that early gave her a glimmer of hope that it would arrive on time and that I would not have to wait another 3 months after my birthday to open it which would have been the next time I was home from boarding school.

the do’s

The passage of scripture read at her memorial service was from Mark 14:6-9 which reads “But Jesus said, Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you will always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” (ESV, italics added)

These verses are referring to the woman who entered Simon the leper’s house and broke an alabaster jar of pure nard and poured the expensive oil over the head of Jesus as he was reclining at Simon’s table.

She has done what she could.

An expensive vessel and the contents of that vessel even more valuable, were broken and poured over the Lord. Who does that? Someone who has no concern for the materialistic value of the jar or the perfume inside, but instead yearns desperately to use whatever is at their disposal to express their love for Jesus.

Inez had done what she could.

the devil’s in the don’ts

Satan is scared of the doing. Even more so, he is terrified of the doing when sinful hearts are replaced with hearts washed as white as snow by grace; when we grasp the depths of our own depravity and cry out for a Savior. When we’ve been crushed by the weight of our sin but then we find forgiveness through the cross and Jesus fills us with hope and a future.

After finding Jesus, the doing doesn’t get lost in the yellowed pages of history because lives are impacted for eternity. There is so much power in the doing when it is rooted in our love for Christ. Pure love is the mightiest weapon we have because it has the potential to alter the course of someone’s life forever.

That’s what scares Satan.

In case you’re thinking the story doesn’t apply to your life, guess what? Satan’s tactics are the same now as they were during Biblical times. Just like the story in Mark, he gets people talking about you. They question your motives, make judgements about your actions and intentions, they may even mock your attempts at showing love. He tries to kill your doing.

And then he gets inside your head and says…

don’t try

don’t care

don’t cry

don’t feel

you don’t have enough experience

you don’t know enough

you don’t have the training

you don’t have a platform

you don’t know where to start

you don’t have enough money

you don’t know the right people

you don’t belong

you don’t matter

you don’t have what it takes

it’s not worth it, just don’t even start

alabaster jars

One afternoon I was in the shop measuring out food for our 3 dogs and my 2-year old grandson wanted desperately to help. I knew he was not strong enough to carry the dog food dishes so I found a small jam jar and filled it for him and then he insisted on wearing my gloves as he helped.

He was so happy walking beside me with his very own little jar of dog food and my work gloves perched on his tiny hands.

What he wasn’t doing was feeling like a failure for not being able to carry a bigger jar or heavier dog dish. He wasn’t berating himself for not getting as much done as someone else had been able to. He wasn’t bemoaning his lack of impact on the world stage or looking at me with jealousy because I was carrying more than he was.

Nope. He was very confident as he walked alongside me. He knew that his contribution was important because he was doing what he could to help me. It brought tears to my eyes, it was so precious~ just the purity in his young heart.

Inez

For the vast majority of her life, Inez sent cards to missionary kids, their parents and many others as a way of reminding them she was thinking about them. When she finally reached the age that writing all of those cards became too much for her, she began calling people instead. She devoted her life to doing what she could, never with the intention of drawing attention to herself, rather, expressing the love of Christ to all who were within her dash.

What is in your alabaster jar?

I encourage you to do what you can with what you have to serve Christ, it is the most beautiful gift you can offer Him.