My five day fast ends tonight. I've had some time to think about hunger, flavour, nourishment, and things that compliment.During this past week of not eating it seems as though the food set on the table before the family has been unusually good.
Baked ham and mashed potatoes on Tuesday, "This is the best pot of soup I've ever made" on Wednesday, coffee out with friends and a dish of cream cheese with a spicey cranberry and pepper jelly on Thursday, grilled chicken and stuffed potatoes together with very good company on Friday, and today I watched as four sleepover young women gratefully dove into a pile of Mennonite pancakes and crisp bacon after playing an hours worth of hockey in the backyard.
I've made my mental notes and set samples aside for tonight when I too will enjoy, as everyone else did, the nourishment of the week. I've watched and listened as everyone else has rushed to the tables and made smacking and agreeing noises about the flavours. I've stopped to listen to hearts and extend grace.
What the family shared during the week, will be shared with me tonight. The nourishment I received during the week through prayer, reading and simply listening and responding, will be shared with everyone around me...a little at a time...in savoury bite sized bits. Sometimes two bites together because they compliment each other so well. Two bites like listening and responding...like the way I listened last night after I angrily yelled from the back deck to the boys on the skating rink who are obviously "going to end up in jail", to quit shooting pucks in my yard and tromping through the garden. The way I responded last night when I walked over to those "jail bound" boys and extended my hand and appologized for yelling and treating them without grace. Will this keep them away from prison? I don't know, that's not my place...it's their story. My place is to humbly and gratefully live in grace, and to extend it blindly.
Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. Being found means to accept grace, which is done by stepping into grace and being transformed by it, and then extending it to everyone around you. It is not done by adhering to a list of rules and regulations and saying one prayer over all prayers. The evidence of the transformation is in the observable change, forever undulating as it manifests itself.
I'm looking forward to the menu tonight. "Like a deer pants for the water" so I long for what is to come during my transformation as a grace giver. Dining together is always better than eating alone.
3 comments:
you really write well! your subject matter can be slightly uncomfortable to me at times but i really appreciate your words, your sensitivity and your graceful outlook! i really enjoy reading what you have to say.
Valgalart, thank you for your comment. My subject matter is really uncomfortable to me all the time. I'm hashing through much of what I've heard and felt over the last long while and this is a good place for me to throw them. If you are willing, I would actually like to know what you are uncomfortable with...it may just shed light on my path.
I'm flattered that you have visited and commented more than once. I hope I never scare you away.
it is the religious aspect that is slightly uncomfortable for me. But i am just a humble observer of your house and i am not here to judge! i just felt compelled to express that yesterday. You are a very bright man with rolling flowing words that are earthy and real to me. I respect your words and writings and observations. I look forward to reading more of what you have to say! thank you too for being open to me.
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