Finish Your Recipe

Growing up, I absolutely hated sloppy joes.  First of all, who in their right mind wants to eat something that brings to mind a big, sweaty man who might change oil at a gas station (at least that's the image that came to my mind)?  I had tried them a few times and just really didn't like them.  However, I married someone who does like them so I had to find a recipe that I liked.  It took a while, years in fact, but I finally found one (and of course it happens to be this one by The Pioneer Woman, I just love her recipes).  I will now openly admit, I LOVE sloppy joes!  I often make them a couple of times a month now.  Nothing beats some of these sloppy joes on a toasted bun with some melty, shredded cheese.  However, it takes the right combination of ingredients to make a sloppy joe that I will eat.  

I started thinking last night while I was cooking about the magic of a good recipe (I know sometimes the strangest things come to my mind, give me a break I spend my days with humans age 4 and under).  You can take several ingredients that by themselves are not particularly something good to eat and turn them into something delicious.  For the sloppy joes for instance, I hate mustard but the recipe would not taste right without it (I use regular mustard instead of the ground kind by the way).  I would never dream of sitting down and eating a plate of raw meat or a spoonful of chili powder.  However, when you put them together in the right amounts, and put them to the right amount of heat for just the right amount of time, something magical happens.  The same is true of one of my favorite sweets; hot, fresh chocolate chip cookies.  Flour is not appetizing on its own, and who would eat a couple of teaspoons of baking soda?  But, when mixed with all the right ingredients and put in a super-hot oven for just the right amount of time, they are heavenly.

I feel like we experience some of the same process in our lives.  God is crafting a "delicious" life for each one of us, but just like a good recipe, we must get all the ingredients mixed together completely and it needs time in the oven or on the stove to taste right.  If you gave up on a recipe because you tasted it before all the ingredients were added, or decided not to put it in the oven because it was just too hot, you would never enjoy the fulfillment of a delicious, fresh baked cookie.  Day by day and experience by experience, God is making us into what he has created us to be.  However, if we chose to quit because we are going through something hard or give up because our situation seems hopeless, we will never fully walk in what God created us to be.  Just like any recipe, some ingredients in life can stand alone as be good by themselves. For instance, getting a promotion at work or maybe celebrating a new baby are wonderful things.  However, some ingredients of life are just plain gross on their own (for me the mustard in the sloppy joes), but when combined with the rest of our life experiences can be crafted into a wonderful part of our testimony.  We must take the good with the bad and keep the end result in mind when things get tough.  

I truly believe that there are far too many people in this world that live unfulfilled, disappointed, and miserable lives because for whatever reason they didn't allow God to finish the recipe.  Maybe they hit a tough situation and got bitter and just never got over it.  Or perhaps they gave up because it seemed like the vinegar that they were dealing with would never make anything taste good.  Whatever the situation, we are called to persevere and allow God to use those things in our life to bless others.  Some of the most influential preachers I know have had to deal with some horrible life situations, whether their fault or not.  Some have been victims of childhood rape or maybe have come out of a drug addiction.  Many of the bad situations that we deal with in life are simple because we live in a sin-filled world.  However, God can take any of those situations and turn it around for His good, if we let him.  You never know 10 years from now, which of your "ingredients" will come in handy.  Don’t stop God before he’s done with you.  Some of the most delicious things in life take hours and hours to cook, don’t stop because it seems like God is taking too long.  He is the perfect chef and will pull you out of the oven at the right moment.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” James 1:2-4 NLT