Something very short to ponder this morning. 
I have had a recurring question pop up many times and it always challenges me… Am I of any use?
As I look back on my walk with God I find a pattern of doing things for God that were out of my own sense of duty or because I believed them to be useful. And then there are the other times, those times that didn’t involve any motive other than the fact that I love Him. Those times are more special to Jesus than all the others that were the result of a sense of obedience.
The reason this came up was because I was reading again the scripture that recorded an incredible act that was not out of any sense of being useful. It was a pure reflection of love for Jesus and nothing else…
Mark 14:6, 8 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.
There is far more in this act of love by Mary of Bethany than we realize. She broke open the alabaster box of costly perfume and anointed Jesus while those around her complained that she was wasting it. Jesus recognized that she understood that He would soon be sacrificed and that the oil she would use in preparing His body was never going to be required. It could have been used elsewhere or, as the others protested, used to help the poor. Mary chose not to “do something” out of pure love for Jesus, and He recognized her for it.
Mark 14:8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.
What Mary did was not some colossal diving act, it was a simple act that reflected the fact that she was willing to abandon all for Him.
As I look back on my life I have to ask myself, have I followed Mary’s example? Have I done things for Him that were not concerned and focused on my walk with Him, how I look and talk? As Oswald Chambers once said: Do I do things for Jesus out of fear of offending Him? Perish the thought that the focus should be on wondering if I am of any use. Rather I should be wondering if I am of being of value to Him? Once again Chambers… When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time.
Like Mary, we need to be led more by our heart than our head. I sincerely need to work on that!