You Can Stir The Pot, But Can You Cook The Meal?

I don't typically like familiar sayings.

i.e. "you can't have your cake and eat it too" 'Knee high to a tree stump' 'don't throw the baby out with the water'

Because, quite often, they lose relativity, and in my selfishness, I can't drop these clever sayings without someone ending up looking completely, and utterly lost.

I'm a big believer in relating things to everyday life, this era, this culture. Yes, I would love the world to stay informed on old historic sayings and ways, but it isn't the case... so to reach the people, we must relate to the people, because we are the people.

I'm not sure what this rant is about, except that I had this thought this morning.... You can stir the pot, but can you cook the meal? And so my effort to connect it to something begins.

This past weekend, we've had almost a record breaking snowfall. I knew it would hit hard. I knew that I would be comfortable and well supplied with food, entertainment, clothing etc in my own home. And like a winter storm, out of nowhere, hitting Maryland, a tiny insignificant state, incredibly hard and incredibly brutally, I was hit with a deep and bitter realization in my own life. I don't want to be comfortable and sitting like a duck, just waiting... for what? And so, a big part of myself was woken up... and I up and left. Gathered food, clothing, donations, and implanted myself in the city. In a place that you wouldn't exactly vacation to, or stroll around looking for good food. I was ready for God to do something. So as he directed, I left my home, and got stuck, gloriously, in the city. And far from short, my life was changed.

You see, I have never been one to want to sit in one place. I remember as a child (and even sometimes now) My sweet, sweet mother getting frustrated with my inability to sit still at the dinner table. The only way this was accomplished was if I was ripping napkins subconsciously. My personality is that of an adventurer. I want to live with a passion so deep, so alive, that it squirms in my hand dying to be set free. In moving back home, I have felt extremely confused. It's as if all of my passion slipped out of my hand, and I couldn't chase it. I felt so lifeless, so the only thing I could do was get on my face and pray to my Father. Why did it all slip? Why did I let the lies and the old insecurities get back to me? Why did I feel so lost and alone? What is my life about? I've never not had something I was doing or working towards.

It was a good six months. Possibly the hardest. Possibly the loneliest, most confusing, empty time of my life. But all I could do was go back to my loving heavenly Father. Seek the one with whom freedom was birthed. Who relentlessly pursues His children. There is something to be said about perseverance. We discover more of ourselves, and more of our Father. There are times in our lives when we must wait, and receive. Receive what it is he is wanting to do, or speak in our lives.

And as always, on the other side, I see how beautiful and much needed it was.

And then like a blizzard, he struck. Out of nowhere.

Passion.

Passion to love people. Passion to love the unloved. Passion to seek the lost. Passion to comfort the world in its brokeness. Passion to envelop people in His loving kindness.

Well world. I've figured it out. I'm back. No matter what I do in life, I can carry this anywhere. I would do anything just to have a house for people to enter into, and see His light, feel His grace, His wonder and might.

So I can stir this pot and talk it. But can I cook the meal and serve it?

I don't want to just be an encourager with my words, but with my life.

I guess we shall see. Can I cook the meal and serve it wherever I am? Now?

Here's to walking it out.

To not being safe.

To living the gospel out.

To being humbled.

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through His Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is by the power at work with in us able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen" Ephesians 3:14-21

You can stir the pot... but can you cook the meal?