The foundation of this writing is the parable of the ten virgins. Please reference Matthew 25, verses 1-13.
There is a lot to glean from this portion of scripture. But I want to focus on one point.
The five virgins with oil, said no to sharing their oil with the virgins who did not have oil.
They said no.
They said no to sharing their resources, when others had need. This sounds harsh. Rude even. It doesn’t sound like loving your neighbor.
Neighbor? Though a parable, if we project deeper, these women would have known each other, either friends or relatives even.
They said no.
So what is going on here and how does it apply to us today?
What does the oil represent?
Stop. Don’t read ahead. Think.
First, what the oil represents. The oil typically represents the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes without measure. We get the whole of the Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is the gifts of the Spirit that are measured out to each of us individually. But the Spirit Himself, we have completely.
From a horizontal perspective, the oil is also a resource. Though the Holy Spirit is a infinite resource, we are finite beings, that horizontally, have finite resources.
Raise your hand if you are tired? Physically? Mentally? Emotionally? Spiritually?
What resources have you poured out to your own detriment?
Where do you lack boundaries?
Where do you need to add margin?
The Lord has done a beautiful work in my life. He has worked some beautifully hard seasons into my life. I do not regret it at all. I see His work and it is and was good. It is a privilege and a blessing that He would choose to use me in the midst of it all.
But, I became tired.
I became stressed.
I became anxious.
I became unhealthy.
I can be hard headed and not listen to what the Lord is trying to tell me. Many times He has used the hard seasons of life to move me.
Being just 21 and expecting a family with no way to support them, I joined the Marine Corp. God’s hand was all over this. From being chosen a lay leader in my boot camp platoon, to becoming a military police officer. This set the stage for my career.
Being a single dad in the Marine Corp, which is no place for a single dad. I am honorably discharged and go home and hunt down a job with a police department on the north east coast.
My retirement almost 30 years later, when having been off of the road as a patrol officer and being told I’m going back to patrol. I lacked the skills to be safe as a patrol officer.
Leaving the hospital after having become so anxious I could not even walk into the building.
Selling our family farm and moving to Pennsylvania when the school we hosted and helped create became so large there wasn’t room for all of us.
There was cancer, which kept me stationary. Not moving. But not wasted, teaching me humility and “allowing” others to help me, us, my family, when I could not.
Oil.
Kings were anointed with it. It was and is for healing. It was used for lighting. It is used for cooking.
It is a resource around us and a representation of the Holy Spirit within us.
No, the Holy Spirit does not grow weary, But we sure do.
But God.
We moved to the Franklin County area of Pennsylvania November of 2025. Right around Thanksgiving. Little did I know what the good Lord had in store for me when I got up here.
It is quieter. It is slower. The new relationships He’s bringing are sweet. Other relationships are growing in ways we can’t even recognize yet.
After many years I am slowly weaning myself off of Lexapro. It’s a slow process, but I feel so much better. Deeply better.
My oil is returning.
I had been using Benadryl as a sleep aid. Everyday. I am off of that as well.
My oil is returning.
It is the presence of the Lord filling my jar once again. Not unlike Elijah and Elisha filling the jars of their respective widows in need.
It’s beautiful. It’s sweet. It’s refreshing.
No, I am not perfect. I am not deserving.
But God, in His great love. Read Ephesians 2: 4-5.
But God.
He wastes nothing.
He uses everything.
To His glory!
And my joy. (Though to be honest, I didn’t see it in the midst of it.)
The Lord my God led me, and my family into the wilderness.
Here we are taking everything we have learned previously, and working to apply it to our life so that we are all healthier as a family.
But, this includes you also. What changes might God want to do in your life? To restore your oil.
Change is hard. It has its own version of tiredness at times. That’s our flesh getting in the way, blocking the oil of the Lord.
All these things that oil represents?
Jesus fulfills them all.
If you are not yet a believer in Christ and have read this far. Now is your time. Tell Jesus your sinful ways. Bare it all to Him. Give it all to Him. Receive His amazing gift of grace. Seek the truth in His word, the Bible. Seek a body of believers that live life through the words of scripture. Teach life through scripture. But remember, we are all like you. Broken in need of Jesus.
Test all that I have written here. My testimony is mine, but my theology is for you to test.
