What's your nard?

First of all, nard? Great word.

Second of all, I'm grabbing that word from the book of John in which Jesus visits Mary and Martha and Mary breaks a jar of her most expensive nard {can't not giggle} to wash Jesus' feet. {full verses here for inquiring minds}

That verse was taught in my church yesterday in a way that I hadn't totally considered it before. Not just focusing on sacrificing wealth or even sacrificing anything, but focusing on the fact that Mary held nothing, not even her most prized possession, above Jesus. If I'm going to sit here and list the things that I regularly place above Jesus - that I'm not fully confident I'd be able to sacrifice completely for Him - I'd be sitting here all day.

What if all, like all, of my friends abandoned me? If my family was lost in a car crash? If I could never run again? If I developed a fatal allergy to avocados? Would I be able to carry on, knowing only that I had the love of God?

There's a part of me that says, "of course, after a period of mourning or struggle, I would eventually be able to carry on." But there would be a period of serious darkness. And I've endured that before. It's not a pleasant place, and it can be easy to lose sight of all that you do have. Thinking to yourself, "well, at least I have God," can, to the truly miserable individual, be akin to having your mom still think you're cool even though you didn't get invited to the popular boy's Bar Mitzvah. Like, thanks, but really, no thanks.

So this teaching was a powerful reminder to me to stop acting like a 12 year old girl, literally, and be sure that my priorities are in line. Like anything of true worth or difficulty, that's not an easy, one-stop endeavor. That's an ongoing, daily practice that will continue throughout my life to re-assess, to pray, to ask myself, "Would I be willing and able to break my bottle of nard today?"

It's an important lesson, because all that we have here is temporary. Our loved ones will pass away. You can't take your shoe collection with you. But “The Lord’s love never ends; his mercies never stop.  They are new every morning.  Lamentations 3:22-23” - and that's pretty cool.