She Hath Done What She Could

I must admit.

I feel inadequate.

I sing, but my voice cracks when I hit "E" or higher.

I play piano, but I can't read the music. My playing is very plain.

I teach the children's class on the field, but my language skills are so limited that the lessons are often shallow. Because of this, flannelgraph is my dear friend.

There are days when I sulk and wish I could do more or give more or be more.

I understand well when Jesus said, "For without me ye can do nothing."

I am absolutely inadequate without Him. 

But He doesn't expect me to be "enough."

I find great comfort in the woman with the alabaster box.

There is so much I can glean from her story.

It never said she was talented.

It never said she was a dynamic teacher of children and women.

It didn't even say she was a great cook!

She may have burned the biscuits every day for all we know.

But what it did say about her...

"She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand

to anoint my body to the burying." Mark 14:8

She simply did what she could.

What exactly did she do?

She went into a place most people would avoid-- a leper's house.

She gave her best treasure.

She ignored the critics.

She didn't defend herself when attacked.

She worshiped the Saviour.

She had faith!

She anointed His body for His burying... she believed He was going to die when others were ignoring what He had told them.

Her story has been told for centuries because she simply did what she could.

She held nothing back.

I, too, want to go where others dare not.

I want to love the unlovable and reach out.

I want to pour out my dearest treasures for Him.

I don't have a perfume box like hers,

but I have other treasures I can pour out with the same abandon she did.

I can ignore the critics.

Yes, missionaries have critics.

Sometimes they are family, friends, strangers, coworkers, fellow church members, or other missionaries.

And I can have faith.

I can trust what He says and live daily by it, just as she did.

Without faith, we cannot please Him.

He doesn't expect me to be adequate. I can never be enough. He just wants me to do what I can through Him. "Without me ye can do nothing."

My story will never be told the way hers has been,

but in the end

I hope it can be said of me that,

"She hath done what she could."