Skip to main content

Bread Bowls and Perfection... ism


 How do you eat a bread bowl at Panera?  One bite at a time!  I am not exactly a foodie photographer (or any type of photographer!), but I was feeling proud of how I demolished that baked potato soup bread bowl. I just hope no one was taking my photograph or even watching for that matter when I was eating it! I was hunkered down in a corner with my conquest and my computer hoping no one was looking.  It was messy.  Just plain messy.  And good… possible even finger-licking good.

Sometimes the things I want to reach for in life feel that way.  Too big.  Too perfect looking.  Too hard to get through.  Impossible to conquer without making a mess.  Without risking looking like a fool. 

But I ate that bread bowl because I was hungry.  Because I didn’t fill up on the chips- the fake stuff.  I made room for the real and my hunger drove me past caring what anyone around me was thinking.

And I think that’s the thing of it.  If we can let go of the distractions, the empty stuff that tastes good for a minute but then we wish we hadn’t eaten it, we will make room for the Real.  And we will get hungry.  Truly, deeply hungry.  Maybe then when the growling pangs of our emptiness fill us, we will discover that we have what it takes.  To go after the dream.  To start taking the little bites- the little steps.  To do the daily things.  Change is not impossible.  But perfection is.  It is impossible to conquer the bread bowl or to chase down the dream or become who we were meant to be without getting messy.  Without sometimes drawing unwanted glances, or stares.  

And I struggle with that.  If I am honest, really honest, that perfection thing can grip my soul.  So much that I often don’t even attempt the thing that’s in front of me because I fear the mess.  Or the failure.  Or the stares.  But lately I have been getting hungry.  And I know that it is really only the opinion of One that matters.  And He says that I have been given all that I need in Christ Jesus.  And you have, too.  He also says that there are good works prepared in advance for us to do.  And I think they have been buried deep inside of us since we were little.  

What is that thing you hide away in your heart?  That secret dream of who you want to be or what you wish you could do?  He sees.  He loves you.  And me.  He wouldn’t put that bread bowl in front of us if He didn’t want us to dive in and get to work and get messy and make something wonderful of it.  Spring is just around the corner.  It’s no too late.  It’s the perfect time for new beginnings and new steps and dreams of hope.  

Now that I have written all of this I have even less of that bread bowl left.  I think I better hit the road before the post bread sleepiness hits me!  




His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life 
through our knowledge of him who called us 
by his own glory and goodness. 
2 Peter 1:3


For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, 
which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deafening Silence

In a single second my life has been radically altered.  My precious gift from God, sweet Makiah Kaitlyn, has gone to be with Jesus long before her time.  I know in my heart that she is happy, but my arms are so empty... my house so dreadfully quiet.  I feel at times that a horrible blackness has enveloped me.  I feel as though my insides are screaming.  I am clawing and fighting to break out of this torturous body- to escape from this oppressive reality, but I cannot escape.  The dark anguish leaps on me again and again.  It sits on my chest and presses against my very life breath.  My heart feels utterly crushed and broken- pummeled into a thousand pieces.  Life as I knew it has been shattered and the shards that are left are painful and sharp.  Cutting me as I try to walk through them.  This is the valley of the shadow of death.  How dark is that shadow! Her room is perfectly untouched.  All of the dolls in her dollhouse family are piled into their little bed together where she lef
Post a Comment
Read more

Toes

Outside the sky is grey and dreary.  I feel it should rain torrents today.  I think the whole earth should cry out in grief.  I feel my heart pounding in my head.  My eyes will barely open, and I think no more tears can possibly come.  Maybe I will stand in the rain and borrow the tears from the sky. I look down at sparkly pink toes, and they are lonely.  Makiah, our last Sunday together you spent the morning in bed with Mommy (because I am on bed rest).  We ate fruit loops and snuggled.  We practiced drawing your letters and painted our fingers and toes.  You wanted rainbow toes, but I didn't have the colors with me.  I promised I'd paint you rainbow toes later.  Once we were all pink you said, "I got an idea!  Let's put sparklies over the pink, and you have to do it, too, Mommy, so we can be twins!"  You are such a princess!  So pink toes became sparkly toes.  We giggled and hugged and admired our matching feet. Now mine sit all alone.  Ten toes that should
Post a Comment
Read more

Wells of Living Water

My eyes filled with tears when my mother-n-law told me of her friend's idea.  This sweet lady, whom I've never met, wanted to know if she could do something special in honor of Makiah.  She said God had put it on her heart to start a well project for her.  She would sell "living water well charms" through Operation Blessing International to raise money to build a well for underprivelaged children in a poverty stricken country.  She said when 600 charms have been purchased, a well with a permanent plaque would be built to commemorate Makiah's life.  Not only was this an amazing idea, it was linked to my daughter's heart in a way that shocked me... What this thoughtful lady could not have known was that only 2 weeks before the accident, Makiah came into the kitchen on a Sunday morning carrying her whole piggy bank.  She told me she wanted to take it all to "give to the kids who need clean water."  The preschool class at church had been raising money
Post a Comment
Read more