My husband was rooting around in the freezer. I was pretty sure he wasn’t searching for broccoli or beans and I was right. “Do we have any ‘Bob’s chocolate chip cookies in here?” came a muffled query. (‘Bob’s Chocolate Chippers,” for the uninitiated, are those deemed too dark for consumption, per his middle daughter; not burnt, mind you – just more brown than she likes them.) Since the answer was no, I decided Saturday afternoon might be a good time to fix that.

So, the sugar, the flour, and other assorted cookie ingredients came out of the cupboard. A cup of this, a teaspoon of that. Baking soda, vanilla.  Mixing, measuring, dough plopping on the pan. But something was poking at me in the back of my mind. Eh, probably nothing. Into the oven went the cookies.

At the beep of the first timer I checked and thought the cookies looked a little odd – not the usual color, not the usual brownness, just didn’t have the usual “look” about them. Second check, third check. Something was amiss. Though there was nothing I could do about it now, I re-read the familiar recipe, just to see. Oh, for goodness’ sake – I had mistakenly added baking powder, not baking soda as the recipe required (both are leavening agents; baking powder contains baking soda; soda is usually used in cookies and powder in cakes). After a taste test (and one more, just to be sure!) I deemed them perfectly edible, if not exactly normal looking. They wouldn’t win a baking contest, but they weren’t a disaster, either. We would make do.

Sometimes I think maybe we “make do” in our Christian lives as well. Some of us slack off a bit in church attendance, knowing we need to get there on a more regular basis than we do, but, hey – God’s not taking attendance, is He? Bible a little dusty? Tithing a little off? Haven’t had a good, heart-to-heart with the Savior lately?. Maybe not, but we’re still doing fairly well. It’ll do.

For sure, the Christian life isn’t just living by the “rules.” God’s got them, and He does want us to live by them. But, no, He’s not taking attendance and doesn’t check to see if we’re at church every Sunday. And nobody’s handing out demerits for non-Scripture reading. But He wants so much more for us in this Christian life than “just making do.” The God of the universe, the Creator, our Savior wants us to fully know Him, have a deep relationship with Him. He wants us to live an expansive life, the best life possible. And the only way to do that is follow His recipe for life: to know Jesus Christ as Savior, learn all we can about Him and what he wants us to do, get to know His people and bring others to Him.

“Making do” is OK for cookies, but pretty sad for Christians. There’s really no such thing as a “Christian Contest,” but perhaps we should all live as if there were. I’ll start by re-reading that “recipe” God gave us.

“Jesus said, Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: Love others as well as you love yourself. These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” Matthew 22:37-40 (The Message)

 

 

 

FEAR

Fear can keep us up all night long, but faith makes one fine pillow. ~Philip Gulley

I did it again, Or didn’t, depending on which way you look at it.

I let fear keep me up all night long. I saw each hour on the clock last night – 11:00, 12:00, 1:00, 2:00 and all their mean brothers as they marched resolutely toward you-have-to-get-up-time. And in worried frustration, I threw that pillow of faith on the floor.

I was worried about going to the doctor. My doctor’s a perfectly nice woman, but doctor visits cause me anxiety. They weigh you there. They pretend to be all happy to see you and then they point to the scale. You have to get on it and I don’t like getting on it. Taking off my sweater, my shoes (my watch? my earrings?) does just about nothing to ease the pain of that obnoxious number that shows up after I comply.

They also take your blood pressure. Just thinking about taking my blood pressure causes higher blood pressure. Not kidding. The doc has me keep a record of readings taken outside the office because she knows what happens inside it.

Then there’s the blood sugar test. Now, I know fruits vegetables are my friends and bread, cookies and chips, not so much. I know this. But the taste buds are tough taskmasters. I have to do a better job policing them. If I don’t, I won’t like the test result number that shows up there, either.

But I ask myself, did last night’s worry-fest change any of those numbers? Did my anxiety “add a single hour to (my) life? (Luke 12:25). Nope. (And at almost 61, I’m pretty sure I can do without the extra hour!)

I did some things right last night. As did the Psalmist, I called with all my heart and pleaded with Him to answer me (Psalm 119:145). In my mind I sang every praise song I knew (“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know; fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go.”) I prayed for others I know who have sleep issues, and any other people with any other issues I could pull out of my sleep deprived memory.

The next time this happens (and I know myself well enough to know the probability of recurrence is high) I will do my best with one more thing. I will “give (my) entire attention to what God is doing right now, and (not) get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help (me) deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” (Matthew 6:34, The Message, parentheses mine). The next time my eyes, like the 119 Psalmist’s, stay open through the watches of the night, I long to meditate a bit more on God’s promises, concentrating more on the Bible than on Barb.

 

:-) 
 

A Little Kindness

 

It seems you either love the store or you hate it – I come across both kinds of people. But I’m a lover. I like the prices, the selection and the fact that it’s pretty much one-stop shopping. From what I’ve seen, however, the employees at this particular location? If they’re not exactly haters they’re really, really dislikers!

I’ve never worked there, but I can imagine the folks who do don’t get a lot of positive reinforcement. Many seem to view their position as being of the dead-end variety. Then there are the customers, who can be a surly sort, taking any annoyances out on a convenient target - very often the cashiers. Cost too high for the bottle of detergent? Yell at the checker. Frying pan you purchased on your last visit only lasted a month? Snarl at the woman scanning your items. That’s how it often goes. I’ve witnessed it.

This morning I was in the 10-items-and-under line, behind a woman who must have been a child-left-behind, because she apparently couldn’t read the sign. On top of that, she wanted her order split into three separate ones – not difficult but I suppose rather annoying, too. I had been watching the sullen clerk for a while (as much as I like the store, getting in and out is never a quick proposition); she dealt with several folks and then came the Illiterate One. Madam Cashier was not having a good day. She was kind of grumpy, down at the mouth. I had been admiring her haircut and, though I didn’t know her from Adam (Eve, either!) I decided to let her know that when it was my turn.

“You have such a cute haircut,” I said to her. “And the color is very flattering, too.” My, my, my – night turned to day and storm clouds to sunshine. “Well, thank you,” she grinned at me. “Nice of you to say.” We proceeded to have a nice little, friendly conversation. She commented on the “Happy Birthday, Emily” cake I was buying. I remarked that I couldn’t believe Emily was turning 36, whereupon the employee said, “Well, you tell her that she’s a lucky girl.”

I can’t say that the few pleasant words I exchanged with this person changed her life. I can say that it changed it for a few minutes, and who knows after that? Eons ago Aesop said, “No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.” A more modern day philosopher, Leo Buscaglia concurred, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb,sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” Proverbs 16:24