Time for More Mac and Cheese

Last time I was writing about the different ways people eat m&c, and how they sometimes insist that their approach is righter than that of others.

I have been thinking a lot since then about the mac and cheese itself. About what we who have eaten the mac and cheese (some say we have drunk the KoolAid) have in common. What is this thing we have?

macaroni
A type of pasta in the form of short tubes.
(used by Italian-Americans, especially in Philadelphia and New Jersey) A generic term for pasta.

cheese
A dairy product made from curdled or cultured milk.
Any particular variety of cheese.
A piece of cheese, especially one moulded into a large round shape during manufacture.

macaroni and cheese
A savory dish made from cooked macaroni and cheese sauce.


I don't know. Let's go exploring.

I am not sure that M&C is a good metaphor for the Gospel. The thing I am sure of is that the way people have favorite ways to eat it is a good metaphor for the ways Christians express and engage in Christianity.

This I know. It is accepting God's Grace that we have in common. I get in trouble there, but that is okay. The next thing that happens is that someone asks if I mean that those who have not accepted the grace of God are not Christians. I would pretty much say yes to that.

So the Macaroni and Cheese is saying yes to the Christian God and accepting as true the message of the Christian Bible. Maybe that is why mac n cheese is a good metaphor. It is a combined, yet two part thing. Like Christianity is two part. It is hearing the deal and saying yes to it. It is receiving new life and giving worship.

It is a relationship. Macaroni by itself is interesting. Cheese sauce by itself is interesting. But the combination is so much more than the sum of its parts. And so is Christian life.

I think this is going somewhere. I am encouraged, Father. Please continue to develop this in my heart. More to come.

Consume, Maintain, Create

There is balance missing in my life. How about yours?

Maybe there is no standard, but I know that the mix of these factors that is right for me is not being met. I know simply because I picked up a flute, blew a few notes, strung a few more into a line that started and resolved, and knew that creation was getting short shrift.

Then I looked around and saw how I was habitually maintaining my living space, and knew that that piece was off as well.

That provokes looking at consuming. What surfaces is that consuming is the least about relationships. Sure, consuming uses the creation and maintenance of others, but how much does it require or permit relationship?

Wow. Okay. How much is any of it valid and beneficial when what relationship it has is, at the most, superficial?

Outside of the Kingdom of God, most of relationship is shallow. There is insufficient resource for much more, and fear and the need to protect self make vulnerability, openness, too dangerous.

So I am aching for real relationship. That is what is missing. And I am aching because Christ in me is aching for it. Everyone knows they are missing it, but he drives me toward it. The Kingdom is about relationship if it is about anything. As the Kingdom advances into this world, the imperatives of it become the manifest desires of its citizens.

Well, Father, that's it down to the nub. The Spirit knows your heart and prays your reality into manifestation in this world. I really, really want to ride this wave. Help me to time my paddling and standing.