Tonight I’m going to try an original sauce on my wings. 

About a year ago I started making hot wings at home. I had a spot that I always got my wings from but, during one of the COVID lockdowns, they closed and I needed a different source for my weekly craving. 

It was a good thing I started making them myself because my wing guy didn’t open back up for almost six months. 

Think about that for a moment: I might have gone without wings for half a year! 

… I’m not sure I would have survived. 

Along with taking on the role of head wing chef in our house, I also needed to have a sauce that would match or rival my old wing joint. I experimented for weeks, tweaking my recipe each time I had wings until I finally found a taste to my liking.

I’m sure that most high-level chefs go through the same process when they are trying to create a new dish. They add a dash of this and a pinch of that, always with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. 

… I know those spices from listening to Simon and Garfunkel in the 60’s. Those four spices always have to go together – not in my wing sauce, of course, but when a chef is inventing a new delectable delight to satisfy the taste buds of his customers.

We all tinker with things, trying to make them more to our liking. We might try to tweak something to make it easier to use. We might try to make something more affordable, or appeal to a wider range of people. 

Sometimes it doesn’t work. 

When I was growing up, my mother would occasionally buy us Alpha-Bit cereal. I remember really liking it. Over my formative years I ate my way through many, many boxes of that early reading tool.

Then recently I had a chance to try Alpha-Bits again. There was something that just was not right about them. It had been so long since I’d eaten them, but I knew there was something different. 

I read on the box, “new enhanced flavour”. In this case, no, it was not “new enhanced”, it was “not very good”. I won’t be trying Alpha-Bits any time soon.

But back to my wing sauce … 

I had a few wings on vacation at my brother’s cottage. Of course he didn’t have my sauce, but what he did have was the main ingredient in my recipe: Franks Red Hot sauce. 

So I decided to try it straight up on his wings. You know what? There was something about it that was really good … maybe even better than my sauce. 

I’m not sure, so tonight I will try it at home with my wings – Frank’s, straight up. 

It’s possible I should never have tried to tweak the formula. Sticking with the original may be the best way to go.

Don’t overthink or try to improve on something that is already just the way it should be. 

Here’s the thing: There are times that we want to tweak our faith a little to bring it into line with some of the current thoughts and trends of the day. Remember that the original is the best. The Word of God is our timeless authority and we should continue to follow it and not try to massage it more to our liking or the world’s liking. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you tweaked that you realized you shouldn’t have? Leave your comments and questions below.

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