First Impressions
Ten women, the same invitation, and a wait nobody saw coming.
Picture ten women standing outside at night, waiting for a wedding party to show up. They all got the same invitation. They all grabbed a lamp. They all showed up on time and took their place, ready to walk the groom into the celebration when he arrived. On paper, there's no difference between any of them. Five brought extra oil in jars, just in case things ran long. Five didn't bother. They figured their lamps had enough.
Here's the detail that changes everything: the groom was late. Not a little late — hours late. So late that all ten women got tired and fell asleep waiting. Every single one of them. This isn't a story about spiritual people staying alert while lazy people dozed off. Scripture is clear — they all crashed. The difference didn't show up until midnight, when the cry finally went out: "He's here!" That's when five women reached for their extra oil and five women realized, with a sinking feeling, that they didn't have any.
What gets me about this story is how ordinary it starts. Nobody could tell the wise from the foolish for most of the night. They looked the same, waited the same, slept the same. It was only when the wait got longer than expected that what each woman had actually stored up got revealed. That's such an honest picture of life, isn't it? We don't find out what we're really running on until something takes longer than we planned for — a marriage that doesn't turn around as fast as we hoped, a prayer that goes unanswered for years, a season that just won't end.
This week, we're going to sit with a question that got asked from the stage on Sunday and honestly hasn't left me alone since: am I living off what God is doing in my life right now, or am I coasting on something he did for me years ago? Because those are two very different things. You can love Jesus, know your Bible, and still be running on empty — not because your heart is far from him, but because you haven't refilled the tank in a while. This isn't about guilt. It's about getting honest, gently, about where you actually are. That's what this week is for.
Sit with this
- 1When you think about your relationship with Jesus right now, does it feel like it's really yours, or does it feel like you're leaning on other people's faith to get you through?
Journal prompt
Write about a time your faith felt fully yours — not something you picked up from a parent, a pastor, or a good worship set, but something that came from your own time with God. What made that season different?