Just Do It!

I’m learning some interesting things about myself since I started blogging. For example, it seems that I really gravitate towards word studies. If I’m reading a scripture or listening to a song, there is often one word that will really jump out and grab me and set me off on a deeper study of some topic. Staying true to that theme, there’s a word that’s been bouncing around in my head for the past several days. It’s a word that I haven’t heard very often since I was attending a more traditional church in my young adult years. The word is “unction.”

I used to hear the word a lot – For example, folks would say after a Sunday service, “He really had an unction to preach today.” But, apparently, the word’s a bit archaic, and if you look it up online, you find lots of historic references to sacraments of the early Catholic Church. However, you also find definitions that refer to unction as a synonym for anointing. But, the definition resonated a bit more with me was this: a fervent or earnest quality or manner of speaking. I realized when I read that definition that I tend to associate unction with fervency. If I were to describe it in my own terms, I might say that unction is anointing with some “umph” behind it.

Anointing is important. It imparts power and authority and ability and healing – whatever it is that you need at the moment. But, anointing is a passive concept. It’s something that’s done TO you. It’s something you receive. Unction is about recognizing that you have that anointing and then DOING SOMETHING with it.

A friend recently posted this anonymous quote as her facebook status: “Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.” If that describes you, and if you’ve been seeking the Lord about that thing, then I would say that you have an unction to do that thing. If you have an unction – if you’ve been anointed and gifted to do something and you have a burning desire in your heart to pursue it – then GO FOR IT with everything in you. Even when it’s hard… Even when you wonder why you feel so compelled to do this particular thing at this time in your life… Even when everything around you conspires to make it difficult to pursue your passion…

When God anoints us, He expects us to respond with action, and when we do, amazing things can happen. I love this passage from Isaiah 61 which so beautifully describes the power of God working through His anointed one:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

God has me doing some things right now that are pretty far out of my comfort zone (like writing this blog!). But, I’m recognizing more and more each day that there is an unction – an anointing and an urgency – to keep doing those things. I don’t understand exactly why, but I’m compelled to keep going and I’m trusting that one day the purpose will become clearer. In the meantime, I’ll keep pressing on, and I encourage you to do the same!