food

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I’m Messy; Deal With It!

I’ll admit it:  I’m kind of a messy guy.  It’s never hard to tell where I’ve sat at a table for a meal.  There are usually more than a few crumbs that escape my plate and leave clear evidence.  However, I’ve never seen crumbs form the word “Paul” so one could argue that someone else was sitting in that spot.

I’ve been messy as long as I can remember, and it may even be a genetic trait.  My dad was a notorious spiller.  I could share many-a-story of his spectacular spills – stories our family still gets a good chuckle over years later.  All I have to do is mention the word “marinara” and a smile appears on the face of everyone in my family.

My son has a good chance of proving the messy gene theory because, when we eat at the same table, sometimes it’s hard to determine who sat in what spot.  But my wife, Lily, says I’m messy because I don’t eat properly.

Somehow, in all my years, I never learned to eat right.  If you ask me, this is a major slam against my mother who, after all, was the one who taught me how to eat in the first place.  But the curious thing is, it also incriminates Lily because she’s the one who taught our son to eat … and apparently he hasn’t learned to eat properly either!

Lily says the problem is simply that I don’t have my plate close enough to me, and therefore, things spill.  I am either sitting too far away from the table or my plate needs to be closer to the edge.  In fact, the other day she actually pushed my plate closer to me … and I promptly spilled something on the far side of my plate.  If she hadn’t have moved my plate I wouldn’t have spilled.  I get the blame but I’m telling you, it was her fault.  I wanted to pick up the food I spilled and place it on her placemat, but I restrained myself.

And, by the way, placemats are overrated, especially for messy guys like me.  A hard, smooth surface is much easier to clean and to quickly hide the evidence (one quick swipe, if you know what I mean) than fabric where the crumbs get stuck and remain for the CSI team (Lily) to investigate.

It really doesn’t matter if I’m spilling something on my shirt (and becoming more like my dad every day), or if I leave a ring of crumbs around my plate when I eat, that‘s who I am.  I’m messy.  If I’m going to be eating at your house, you have to be prepared for that, or reconsider having me over.

Here’s the thing:  We like to change people, but the reality is we can’t.  We can get quite frustrated with people who don’t want to place their faith in God.  We can try to change them, but it won’t work.  We can just walk away and not have anything to do with them, or, we can just accept them as they are and allow God to work in them.  Who knows?  God might even use you to push the plate a little closer to them.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How hard is it for you to just accept people whom you want to see changed?

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Life is a Buffet

Recently Lily and I celebrated our anniversary by going to a dinner theatre. The play was secondary; I was thinking more about the buffet and what I would be eating than what I would be watching.

The food was okay.  At a buffet it’s the volume that really matters … and there was volume!  I noticed some people piled the food on their plates as if it was their last meal.  Others went back for one or two more rounds.  Being a little conscious of what I’m eating these days, I kept my plate portions to a respectable side, but did visit the buffet more than once.

I find it amazing that if I had just ordered a plate of food, I would have been satisfied.  But because I can go back for more, something inside me says, “you’re still hungry, get back up there and get another plate”.  Or possibly it’s my wallet that speaks to me saying, “you’re paying $X for this meal; make sure the theatre isn’t making any money off of you … make them pay!”  It’s a crazy attitude to have, but somehow it pops into my head at the thought of a buffet.

A second plate wouldn’t have been that bad, but there was a dessert area that had not escaped my notice the two times I had been in the buffet line.  In fact, by the time I was ready for dessert I had already pictured what my dessert plate(s) would be filled with. Did I mention I had two runs at that line as well?

I had to visit the desserts again.  It wasn’t that I really wanted to; it was more that after my first plate I didn’t save anything to nibble on during the performance.  That, and there were still some things that I had noticed that I wasn’t able to fit on my first plate.

When I got to the line for round two, it was long.  It seemed I wasn’t the only one with an idea of having a plate full of goodies to carry me through the production (as if I might get a little peckish if I didn’t!).  I noticed some people taking dinner sized plates to put their desserts on, and I thought, “that’s not right”, but when I got close to the desserts something overtook me and I grabbed a large plate too.  It didn’t look right with just a few things on it so I had to put enough on the plate to make it look, well … uh … full.

When I got back to our table, I told Lily that some of it was for her, but she wasn’t interested in much, so it was left to me to finish.  I didn’t do a bad job; I kept at it right through the play.  And when it was all over, I waddled out of the theatre, like everyone else.  Oh, and the play was not bad either; it was a musical.

Here’s the thing:  in life we can fill our time – our daily plate – so full that when we get to the main attraction (the main reason we’re really here) that becomes secondary. You see, God has put us here to glorify Him and enjoy Him, and often we are so busy filling ourselves up with all kinds of goodies, that the production we came to be part of becomes an after thought.  I need to put more time and effort into the main thing, more focus on what I am here for.  Maybe if I did, I wouldn’t feel liking I’m waddling around in this life.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What are you gorging yourself on that is taking way from your main purpose of glorifying God and enjoying Him?  Leave your comment below.

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Mmm … That Smells So Good!

Today’s entry is a guest blog from my wife, Lily.  She does all the editing for my blogs and  awhile ago she was inspired to write one of her own.

I just love the smell of coffee!  There’s nothing quite like it.  It’s one of those aromas that’s comforting.  A house always seems cozier when you smell coffee brewing.  For some, when you wake up in the morning and smell the coffee, somehow you feel more awake, and everything seems like it’s going to be ok.  Or when you come in from a bitter February winter storm and smell coffee, you immediately start to relax and warm up … even before you get your first sip!

In fact, I like the smell of coffee so much that when I saw some coffee decorating ideas on Pinterest, I just had to try them.  I now have coffee beans in some of my candleholders, constantly emitting that delicious subtle aroma of coffee in our living room.

The other day I went to Tim’s to meet a friend.  We get together occasionally to chat and catch up on each other’s lives.  We choose to meet at Tim’s not because we’re both coffee addicts, but because it’s close and convenient for both of us.  As a matter of fact, my friend usually orders a tea, and, although I like coffee, I could honestly take or leave it.  Actually, this particular time, because I walked there, I was way too hot to drink coffee.  I ordered a water.

We enjoyed a great visit and then headed home.  As soon as I got in the door, I went to my office to check phone messages and email.  As I sat at my desk, I was suddenly aware of a wonderful aroma.  I started sniffing around … I smelled coffee!  How strange since I hadn’t made coffee in the house for a few days, and there were certainly no coffee bean filled candleholders on my desk.  I kept sniffing around perplexed.

And then it dawned on me.  The aroma of coffee was coming from me!  My clothes, my hair, and even my skin smelled like coffee.  After sitting in Tim Horton’s for almost two hours, I had obviously absorbed that coffee aroma.

That got me thinking.  Do I spend enough time with Jesus that His aroma is left on me?  Can my friends get a whiff of Jesus when they’re around me? … or do they just smell me?  Lately I have to wonder.  It’s so easy to get caught up in the daily grind, in the stress of doing life that I, too often, cut short my time with God … or crowd it out all together.  And then what’s left? – just me … just me and my busyness, or impatience, or agenda, or preoccupation with various people or things.  If I haven’t been in Jesus’ presence, how can His aroma, His fragrance, His character be transferred to me?

Just like grabbing a coffee via the drive through won’t leave the aroma of coffee on me, I’ve got to stop trying to pick up Jesus by a quick drive through.  If I want to be like Him, have His fragrance on me, then I have to park myself and spend some time with Him … maybe over a coffee!

Take care and smell good!

Lily