Purchase Lamp Oil: Deepen Your Skills

The ancients pushed back the night with lamp oil. Likewise, we extend the reach of our lives through skills development. Whether it is something as deeply personal as prayer or as highly public as social media or anything in between, to the degree we deliberately develop it, we have amplified our ability to serve others. We have done the thing we can do: prepare for the unexpected open door to what we hope for.

And that door will come. It will be joy for the prepared. It will be something else for the others.

So whether it is a perfect opportunity for a career, a community, or a calling—or, to be candid, a job, a home, or a dream spouse above our paygrade—“purchasing lamp oil,” becomes a symbol for anything we do to deepen, sharpen, and enrich what has been entrusted to us, such that, when the arrival of our hope appears, we will not miss it.

All of us are waiting for something. All of us are waiting for someone. All of us live large stretches of our lives persevering until the unexpected open door, opportunity, connection, or blessing. But we have to be ready for that open door. We have to be ready to strike the mark in the moment it appears. For when it comes, it will be too late to develop. It will be too late to prepare. It will be too late to purchase lamp oil.

Education is an obvious form of preparation. Whether it is on campus, online, or independent study, the deepening of a skill in this way is one form of personal agency we are free to do at any time. And if a lack of money or acceptance limits your ideal, it never limits the real, namely, you can give yourself wholeheartedly to that which you do have access to. Time-tested books, for example. Read the books your role models read. Listen to the voices they listened.

Consider Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), who, though woefully under-resourced in comparison to his elite and well-endowed rivals, surpassed them in his devotion to the relatively few texts he had access to in his youth. Walking miles to borrow Aesop’s Fables, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progress, and Grimshaw’s History of the United States, these books supplemented his memorizing of large passages of the family Bible. And such a taking to heart prepared him not only for the U.S. presidency, but to make a team out of his rivals and save the nation.

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) did much with far less than Lincoln, for, as a slave in Maryland inspired to learn by Sophia Auld as she read her Bible aloud, he was forbidden the education Sophia began to give him. While still a slave, he managed to acquire and devour books like The Columbian Orator and Webster’s Spelling Book. Once free, he became a pillar of the abolitionist movement, an author of multiple books, and an advisor to President Lincoln.

Indeed, the testimony of many through the ages is similar, that less may be better than more. The brilliant Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) said he would have given up all the books of Paris for a copy of John Chrysostom’s commentary on the Book of Matthew. Father James Vincent Schall, S.J.—though himself a beloved and fruitful scholar at Georgetown University for thirty-five years—commented that, for most aspiring scholars, independent study was likely their least obstructed path.¹

More important than book content is to place ourselves adjacent to those already skilled. Be it virtual or literal apprenticeships, this is another essential way to purchase lamp oil. For knowledge is one thing, but wisdom, discernment, and good character are another. We can only receive these through the energizing dynamic of another, if not in person, in the spirit of their legacy.

There is a parable from our Lord which cuts to the heart of the reality we are exploring. Matthew records it (25:1-12).² Ten bridesmaids were waiting for the open door to the wedding event, which, according to Semitic and ancient Mediterranean tradition, would take place at some point in the night. Five of them had purchased lamp oil ahead of time and five had not. All ten fell asleep, so long was the wait. And when the open door came, five were prepared and entered in. Five were late and were left out in the dark. 

The message is clear: We are each individually responsible for what has been entrusted to us. It is up to us to deepen it. It is up to us to purchase lamp oil. It is up to us to make ourselves ready for the moment we hope for. Be it people or podcasts. Be it libraries or living mentors. Be it schools or self-study. Be it hands-on or with a guiding hand. Each of us must choose courage to prepare for the moment we have been hoping for our whole lives. And it we do, the joy will eclipse the long hours of waiting as if it had been but a breath and a moment. Such is the joy awaiting those who remain awake with the oil they have purchased.

© Kurt Mähler

1. See The Life of the Mind, by James Schall (1928-2019). Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2008. ↩︎
2. Christ’s parable reveals much deeper things than what we are exploring here, but we can nevertheless deeply benefit from it as we develop our skills with a view to what we hope for and thereby cultivate courage in our daily lives. ↩︎

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