Camping has given Kristi and I a lot of opportunity to do some serious "backing-off" and "backing away"; not from each other but from the daily grind. When you take time away from the business of every day life you can reflect a little and "soul search". Where am I, where have I been lately and more importantly, what course am I on? I've kind of lost my way a little bit over the last year and a half. Little by little I find I'm being put back on the path I once was and it feels great. I'm not going to go into much detail other than to share a little revelation; sometimes revelations come from places you least expect them. It is no surprise to me why Jesus often got His point across with parables. I've learned there are parables all around me and maybe these are little gifts from God; and who better than the One that knows me best to put one in front of me just when my eyes need to be opened. Here's one from last weekend:
Last weekend, Kristi and I (for the first time) did some serious cooking in the dutch oven, in the fire pit. The first thing we cooked was a pineapple upside down cake. The significance of this choice was not that we thought it would be easy to do or satisfy some need to over indulge on sugar; no-it was the challenge that drew us. It's one thing to follow the instructions on a box and put the pan in an oven set 350 degrees for 30 minutes-it's another to put the batter in a dutch oven with 10 charcoal briquettes underneath and 14 on the lid and have faith that 30 minutes later you will have something that remotely resembles something edible. For 30 minutes we waited, wondering what was under the lid. We wondered "what will it look like"? I even thought I might have to get the dutch oven sandblasted when I get home. All kinds of thoughts went through my mind. "What's under the lid" I kept thinking. Patience? I'm not a very patient man and I wanted so bad to lift the lid just to check progress. I decided instead to have faith and trust the recipe and the person that wrote it. I decided to avoid the temptation to test this theory by popping the lid. If I pop the lid, all the heat would escape and change the results. I decided to leave the lid alone...oh I tested the progress though-I touched the lid with my finger to see if it was hot! Duh! Long-story-short Kristi got some salve for my finger. I knew the lid would be hot but tested it anyway, and got burned. Meanwhile Kristi looks at me and says "well yaaah...what did you think would happen"? 30 minutes had elapsed. The wait was over! I didn't lift the lid...until the end. I slowly lift the lid, expecting to see at least some compromised result. As I removed the lid Kristi and I just looked at each other and grinned. I was amazed and surprised! Kristi I don't think was as surprised as I was. Her faith in me surpasses my faith in myself. The cake was absolutely beautiful. Wait! This is an upside down cake! The real proof lies at the bottom. This is where the fruit is and the sugar! It is also closest to the heat and if anything got burned it would be the underside-the side with the fruit. I flipped the dutch oven over, down fell the cake onto the plate and what appeared before our eyes was a near perfect cake. The pineapple rings, sugar and cherries were as they should be. In the end we ate some, we shared some and perhaps most of all-we learned something. Interestingly Kristi and I both had the same revelation from this little experiment. The message here is to "trust" and "have faith"..."believe". Life puts circumstances in our path that tempt us to drift and even become skeptical. How often God challenges us to test Him and to trust Him yet sometimes we doubt this or doubt that; we drift a little and test the flames and yes-of course we get burned. The lesson learned on this camping trip was to fight the good fight the best I can. I'm not perfect and like the cake cooked in the dutch oven, I'm a little lopsided and that's OK. The key is patience. Trust God and keep the faith. God has promised me an outcome I can believe in and trust. He has prepared a perfect recipe for my life. I have no reason to doubt what is under the lid. When the time comes, God is going to lift it before my eyes, look at me and say "see Jeff, it's everything I promised it would be-isn't it?"
