Scripture Reading : Matthew 25:1- 13
For the next 40 days, I will be writing about the tree of the olive, her oil, and her fruit. God’s Word is full of teachings about this fruit and her oil. The journey continues. I’ve been studying oil in the Scriptures for two years. The goal is simple: these words are to go onto pages for book number two. The study of the fruit is over. It’s time to share.
Today, March 5, 2025, our world is in turmoil. We are divided. We are polarized. We are terrified. I pray these words will comfort you as we study how to have a reserve—a reserve of energy to do what God lays out for us to do.
Today, I take you into the New Testament, to a story about 10 women preparing for a wedding. They knew the bridegroom was coming. Only half of these women were prepared for the bridegroom’s return. They had a reserve. They had a reserve of oil. They had the ability, the capability, to do what was asked by their bridegroom. Do you have a reserve? Are you capable if God called on you?
Oftentimes, people ask me what it is about the whole foods plant-based (WFPB) diet that keeps me on this path. My answer is always the energy that it provides. The energy it gives my soul, my spirit, and my physical body to do what God has called me to do. Before I knew this path, God had called me to share His story with others, but I didn’t have the energy. I was riddled with diseases from the American standard diet. I had thyroid problems and a huge goiter that had developed during my second pregnancy. I was so tired I could do nothing but sleep. There was no reserve. I believed in His power, but I had nothing left to give.
The story of the 10 women preparing for their bridegroom is important. They had lamps and torches, but they needed the oil for the torches to burn. Five of those women knew the importance of keeping a reserve—a reserve of oil—in order to complete their purpose. Their purpose was to be with the bridegroom.
How did my story begin with the whole foods plant-based diet? It was a gradual transition. These young women most likely gathered the oil over time. Their reserve was gradual. For me, I started by eating more vegetables, eating fewer preservative-laden foods, knowing that something had to change. By the time I was 45, I had suffered cancer twice—once at age 29. I remember the day the dermatologist called to tell me that the biopsy he took from my leg was a melanoma. I was in the locker room at the hospital, having just changed out of the dirty clothes from the operating room. I was to return his call, not knowing the words he would say: “You have a melanoma. A whole group of experts has looked at it, and we are sure it’s melanoma. You need to have it removed quickly.” I was 29 years old.
The first thing I did was go to the grocery store. I started looking at the food labels, at the ingredients. I knew this was the why—the cause of the cancer. No one had to tell me. I just knew. The melanoma was surgically removed, and we celebrated after my nodes were clear, but then I forgot. I forgot to reserve any figurative oil. The little glimpse of knowledge God gave me that day in the grocery store was forgotten.
Then, our youngest daughter began to struggle. Memories flooded back—the flashback of that day in the grocery store. I knew the answer. Her struggles, my struggles, were related to the food we were putting into our bodies. Nothing more, nothing less. The food. The lack of reserve I was feeling. I had no energy to save any of the oil that was needed if our bridegroom returned.
