Don’t go to any event hosting Jesus … without meeting Him personally!

“Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.”

John 12:3 NLT

 I’ve attended a lot of events my life. Probably over 15,000 religious events – Sunday services, youth services, midweek services and special events with religious themes. There have been multi-day seminars, men’s meetings and more. To a non-religious person that likely sounds like a month-long vacation in Siberia in the winter with no books to read and no social media at hand.

But I enjoyed many, if not most, of those gatherings. I learned and matured a lot.

Most all of those 15,000 events featured Jesus in some capacity as part of the settings. He was preached about, quoted, praised and sung about in every style from quiet and respectful to raucous and rowdy.

But I just attended those events. I seldom instigated them.

And that’s what interests me in this New Testament account in John chapter 12. The verse above tells about one person attending this meeting, but not as an invited guest. It was a meal for the men, and typically women weren’t invited except to serve. (Swallow your distaste for such male chauvinistic behavior that was the norm at this time and catch where this story is going).

Although not invited to the event, she decided to create her own! Overcome with love for Jesus … overwhelmed by his acceptance of her … so sure that this planned event would give her no way to express her gratitude, she determined to generate an spiritual event of her own!

She took her love and adoration directly to the feet of the One she loved and adored.

In looking back, there were many events I attended where Jesus and I somehow didn’t connect, and it wasn’t necessarily the fault of the planners or pastors or evangelists. I didn’t want Jesus bad enough. At any point I had the ability of taking myself into his presence … of pushing through the agenda at hand and making myself available to Jesus by my own hunger.

And really, it’s as easy as that! I’ve seen people around me in a service and it was obvious that they were someplace else entirely. They weren’t daydreaming or snoozing, but had a relentless passion to meet Jesus personally, and they pushed their way into his presence.

Events are fine, but don’t necessarily fulfill the hunger of the heart. Listen to yours and decide to do what is called for to have a personal meeting with Him.