I usually only blog on weekdays but I couldn’t resist since
what happened this morning was such a testament to yesterday’s blog. I have dear friends who are walking the
journey of terminal illness in their family.
Oddly enough, I had offered to make gumbo for dinner tonight so I got up
and began preparing by chopping,
boiling, sautéing, stirring, etc… The
main element that can make or break gumbo is how flavorful the rue is once
stirred into the rest of the ingredients.
As I was chopping and sautéing, the rue was baking in the oven requiring
me to stir every ten minutes. As I
chopped I presented this dish back to
God and asked that He would flavor the gumbo with His comfort and
strength. It was at that point I smelled
burning rue! I immediately jerked the
oven door open and began assessing the rue…it wasn’t that bad…it might be
alright… I was immediately spoken to in
my spirit. The message…Is this really the best you have to offer
back to God in service? You have just asked God to bless this and infuse it
with His comfort and strength…you have asked for God’s best but are you giving
it yours? Sheepishly, I took the rue
outside, put the pan down and poured it out. I prepared new rue…flavorful rue. My spiritual takeaway was that if we are to
truly serve God and ask for His best we must do our best in the little ways He
wants to bless others. When we ask for
God’s best for our own life He doesn’t give us burnt rue.
I couldn’t believe the parallel of yesterday’s blog with
today’s personal message. I prepared the
gumbo, I presented it back to the Lord through my prayers for Him to bless, He
asked me to put the burnt rue down and pour it out. With my new rue in the gumbo I know my
service of dinner tonight is blessed and infused with God’s best because I
truly gave Him my best. This morning the
message that came to mind was that I cannot blog one day and live my life
another way the following day. What I
read, study, mediate and blog on I must apply to my life.
“Do not merely listen
to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do
what it says. Anyone who listens to the
word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the
mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he
looks like. But the man who looks
intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not
forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does”
James 1:22-25.
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