Mac N Cheese

I think it is time to at least start talking about Macaroni and Cheese. God help me.

My son and I were talking about religion over Chinese buffet the other day. It all came down to Mac N Cheese.

Here is how we got there. We were talking about how the teaching, or at least the talking, at a church we were attending years ago saw those who had doctrinal differences as wrong, and us as right. I can't say there was ridicule, but we did laugh at them. I mean, how could they be so wrong, and still be so convinced that we were wrong?

The analogy occurred to me. I have been telling my boy all these years that he eats his macaroni and cheese wrong. Why?, you ask. No black pepper. Can you imagine? But then, he also eschews any hint of hot sauce on his eggs. So, on two of the most important matters of life, he is clearly in need of enlightenment.

As we talked on, it occurred to me that there are lots of variations on the macncheese theme. Loose, tight, creamy, dry, simple cheese, exotic cheese, true mac, spongebob shapes, .........

Common to all? Macaroni, and Cheese. And so with the Gospel. Macaroni and Cheese. If you like goat cheese on there, good for you. I am just glad to know you, 'cause you have both founding components.

You have seen the pasta instructions some places. They offer the cook the opportunity to add some oil to the water to help avoid sticking. Well that place we were back then had to have oil. The more oil the better. Personally, I liked the oil. Still do. But there were folks there that were drinking the oil, running their cars on the oil, bathing in the oil and using the oil as an enhancement to their relationships, but they had never tasted the McNCheese.

Anyway, I am just getting started with this thing. Shoot. May end up being a book.

Father, help me understand the part of this that I need to for your glory. I just know I spoke poorly of folks who ate the good stuff, but did not eat it like me. And especially the ones who just stared at it and never ate it.

Father. What a thing to say. Perfect Father. Abundant rest has always been available in Your embrace. I accept. I freely receive what You have freely given.

Thank You that you are showing me by your Spirit how to identify and avoid the meaningless trappings. That you illuminate the path home, the path that leads directly into your embrace.

I need you, Daddy. I need you to rock me, and tell me the truth. I have been believing lies about you and me, both. Forgive me.

And thank you for Hartsville Community Fellowship. Restore each one's awe tonight.

Good Grace

Some days are easier than others. Difference now is that the days are not easier because the circumstances are easier, but rather because I remember to stay in the embrace of grace, and let myself be carried through upon the everlasting arms of love. It is getting easier to love, as the habits of expecting to love, regardless of the response, are daily formed and reinforced. I expect days when, on my own, it would be much harder to love. But the supply of love is so infinitely large.

I am reminded of how much I could have used this in the past. But a big part of expecting to love now exists in me because I did not have it then. God, it was such a barren existence. The dryness of it made me thirsty for real living water.

The pleasure of the writing, now, is that the memory of my dry hard ground still hurts. And so it tells me that my soul is still in need of healing. Help me, Papa to forgive and heal. Help me to release the hurts. Make me more and more like Christ.