First Myrrh, then Cinnamon

I remember vividly when Jesus arrested me in my third year of secondary school. I began to lose my friends one by one because we were no longer interested in the same things. After my personal time with God one day, the Lord asked me to delete my playlist. It literally felt like a part of my heart was being stripped away. He told me to leave only Christian songs, and I barely had up to five of them on my phone. Walking with the Lord demanded a lot of stripping and purging. I often felt left out because I wasn’t interested in the things the average person my age was. I began to have a passion for God I could not explain. You would almost always catch me either reading my bible or praying. Slowly, I became that girl that was always doing too much. Thankfully, the Lord began to send me friends who were passionate about God too. 

I remember one Sunday, I had left my dorm early in the afternoon for a prayer meeting with my new friends. These meetings required us sacrificing most of our afternoon every Sunday. If you went to a boarding school where your schedule was micro-managed, you would understand the worth of getting 3-4 hours to yourself.  On my way to prayers that day, a senior called me aside and asked where I was going. She wondered where I was going 3 hours earlier than the usual time we would move out for our evening service. I told her I was going to a prayer meeting, and she went off. “I don’t know what is wrong with you inferno people. Are you the only ones? Where are you running to?” (Inferno was the name of our prayer group, by the way). I stood there listening to her go on and on for almost 15 minutes if I remember clearly. I was so confused.  I don’t understand how me innocently going for my prayer is affecting you. Of course, I didn’t say this out loud because she was my senior; if you know, you know. 

Fast forward to over 7 years later, during chapel worship some weeks ago, I was reflecting on my journey so far, and the Lord began to remind me of all the times I sacrificed sleep, food, and friends to be with Him. He reminded me of this particular occurrence with that senior, and I smiled. I smiled because I have no regrets. I can see the fruit of those sacrifices being produced in my life, my coming to ORU being one of them. Anyone who knows me knows that Oral Roberts University is very dear to my heart.

 It was in those buried moments of doing “too much” that the capacity was being built for this journey. I had no idea what God was preparing me for. I have been away from my family for several years in a country where you have as much freedom as you can get. No parents or aunties constantly monitoring me. Coming abroad has demanded a lot of resoluteness and a firm grip on my faith and values. But I probably wouldn’t have been ready for it without those moments of exclusion and obscurity that produced the foundation and grounding needed to preserve my convictions as I stepped into uncharted territory in a different continent. 

During one of our chapel services at ORU, our chapel speaker preached a sermon titled Ingredients of the Anointing. God gave Moses instructions for preparing the anointing oil in Exodus 30:22-25. He asked Him to take 500 shekels of pure myrrh and only half as much of sweet cinnamon. Cinnamon represents the sweet part of the anointing, the part we all like. Myrrh represents sacrifice and surrender. It tastes bitter, and it was the antiseptic part of the oil. Google defines antiseptic as scrupulously (carefully and thoroughly) clean or pure. Uninspiring and boring. 

Everyone wants the harvest but not the process. We want to be used mightily by God but not pay the price. Dear friend of God, I came to tell you today that where there is myrrh, there will surely be cinnamon. You may feel left out now, but give it time. You may feel like this journey with God is taking so much out of you, but give it time. Your life will produce sweetness. Sweetness that will attract many others to your Jesus. One of my favorite speakers said if you are willing to do what no one wants to do, God will give you what everyone wants to do. I don’t remember ever once praying to God that I wanted to come to ORU. For one, we couldn’t afford it, so I didn’t even have the capacity to dream that big. There were times we even struggled to pay through secondary school, then I want to study abroad? It was one of those days when I was simply worshipping the Lord like I normally would, and just like Abraham, the Lord said, “go.”  Of course it wasn’t that straightforward, and I’ll share more of my ORU story in subsequent blog posts. 

My dear friends, nothing is more fulfilling than youthfulness invested in seeking the Lord. This is the time to bear the yoke—in your youth—and the farther you go, the less and less you can take with you on this journey. You must travel light because this journey is far. Don’t get weary, my friends, for after death, there shall surely be life. I pray for you and I; may we always carry our crosses with joy. But always remember: 

First Myrrh, then Cinnamon.