I can usually unintentionally find a way to mess up even the simplest of meals. Easy Mac, even implyed in the name, was not easy for me. Turns out, boiling the water should happen before you put the noodles in. Spaghetti. Yes, spaghetti. If you start cooking the noodles and they begin to soften and it appears that you will be able to eat more than you are cooking, don't put in more noodles and expect the new ones to magically cook faster and catch up to the ones that have been cooking already. I once cooked a frozen pizza with the cardboard still attached. You can't microwave a Chef boyardee container if the metal cap is still attached. Tomato paste is not a substitute for tomatoes. Rice burns if you keep it on low after it's already cooked. Just some helpful hints to you beginner cooks. I've learned many things that do not work.
Anyway, as I went grocery shopping with my list of ingredients, I realized that there have only been a couple times in my life where I went to store in order to follow a recipe. I was putting a lot of faith in someone else's instructions for a mean Irish stew. With 18 different items to get (luckily my roommate had some of them already), I was amazed that I found these strange foreign things. I was entering into the 90% of the grocery store I never shop in. My world was opening. Excited to start cooking, I arrived late Thursday night, preparing my mind to cook this stew the next morning. I did forget the Worcestershire sauce, but that's not that important (I think). Here's a pic of the stew-making process which I actually kind of enjoyed. Stew meat, garlic, parsley, beef broth, sugar, thyme, bay leaves, and salt in the pot. Carrots, onions, and potatoes (very Irish) in the pan almost ready to be added to the pot. It smelled great even though I had to improvise (a terrifying word for me) with some of the measurements since not much of the meat defrosted in time. Defrosting is something I often forget to do as well.
The stew was finished by noon and I took the pot to the church since we had a staff meeting from 12-2pm before the after school program started. I put the pot on the oven at the church on what I though was low heat. 20 minutes later, in the middle of our meeting I sensed that it was on medium high heat and burning/boiling/being ruined. Ah well. Another failure. I scooped out what wasn't burnt and put it into a different pot and warned the kids that I cooked the stew and I wouldn't feel bad if they didn't like it. Many didn't like it (weird after taste) but a couple ate a bunch of it. If only I had anticipated possible ways for it to go wrong. I'm still very inexperienced but it was nice to escape from the usual diet of sandwiches, pizza, cereal, and fast food. (Don't worry, that's not all I eat.)
In the midst of all of the scheduled activities at the after school program, there are rules and expectations that hover around the room in every circumstance and situation. These were made by the adults in order to have order in the classroom and provide the kids with an understanding of right and wrong choices. Firstly, some rules are strictly enforced, no wiggle room for "No swearing" or "No fighting." Especially since our expectations are up on a poster on the wall, these are set in stone. Secondly, there are other rules that have to be created and changed as the year goes on due to the ways that that rule plays out in actual life. For example, we started handing out individual water bottles at snack time to eliminate the wasted time from last year where kids would go get water, go to the bathroom, sometimes when it wasn't even needed. About a week in, we realized that the kids having their own water bottles meant that they thought they could do what they wanted with "their" bottle which included squirting it at other kids. Thus, a new rule was created. "Playing with the water bottles results in it getting taken away and you won't get any tomorrow either." Finally, the last kind of rule we have is the kind is of the inconsistant type. The ones that have a gray area where one day no kid is allowed to go inside for water or a bathroom break in the middle of game time, and the next day, a kid is allowed to go inside for water or a bathroom break in the middle of game time. It's in these inconsistancies from our own inadequecies to know the kids hearts and minds fully (as God does) where the kids are not only confused but also have that wiggle room to try to manipulate and stretch those boundaries and freedoms their sinful natures desire.
Yesterday I went to a place called Boing! with my girlfriend and her niece and it was awesome. There were trampolines everywhere. The employees there all had zebra-striped referee shirts on and there was an awesome dodgeball court as well. In the open trampoline area, where the floors were completely trampolined, I tried bouncing as high as I could. Being the cautiously daring type, I started testing the limits of this chamber of anti-gravity liberty. Even the walls had slanted trampolines to bounce into. I intentionally bounced off a wall onto a thick mat. Immediately I heard "Off the walls!" What? I realized it has been years since I've been scolded for doing something wrong. It took me back to the days at the local pool where I'd hear, "Stop running!" from the lifeguards. Wanting to continue my freedom to fly, I challenged my girlfriend's niece to a race from one end of the area to the other. As she took the lead from me, I started to run on the trampolines instead of bounce in order to catch up. "No running!" Are you serious? You're just going to stand there with your striped shirt on and tell me what I can and can't do? I got frustrated since I probably had 5 years on the worker and had no intentions of hurting anyone with my "reckless" behavior. Being told rules without any knowledge of them existing in the first place is frustrating. I realized that I was also confused when a different worker didn't say anything earlier when I did the same things. It was good to at least know what the rules were so that I wouldn't do those things anymore.
Rules (or recipes) are often created by those that have experience or know the dangers of not following them. Rules are often kept by those that either want some sort of power, self-righteousness, or in some case, genuinely want to do the right thing. When I think of God's law, the Ten Commandments for example, I don't believe God made them so that we would be confused or frustrated with our lack of freedom. God gave these commandments because He knows the hurt that murder causes and theft causes and adultery causes.
There is something I need to tell you, whoever may be reading this. You may do your best to follow all the rules, do all the right things, but "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." (James 2:10) Being "good" or following directions does not grant you heaven when you die. Being "good" or following directions will not help these kids in our program know the true gospel of Jesus Christ. There were people called Pharisees in the Bible who Jesus called out in his ministry as being posers who clean the outside of their cup and dish yet have wickedness and greed on the inside (Luke 11:39-41). Please don't be a Pharisee. Rule-following will not save you. If you are reading this and you know you don't follow the rules, in fact, you break them whenever you can and you know it's eating away at your soul, there is a savior who died for you even when we were in sin (Romans 5:8). Don't worry about what people will think and definitely don't worry about being judged by Christians for your past actions. Just come before Jesus. Go to him. Talk to him. He hears you. The only one who did follow all the rules and was without any imperfection. He is a righteous God who searches minds and hearts (Psalms 7:9) and knows what you're going through. He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because he was tempted in every way and was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Psalm 19:11-17 says
"The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure
and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward."
We need help from God to keep his commands, sometimes even when we already have a relationship with Him. One thing I'd like to remind you of is this. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Take his yoke upon you and learn from him, for he is gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. His yoke is easy and his burden is light.
[Lord, thank you for this time getting to write your wordswith such ease through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. You are so good to me even when I don't deserve it.]
If you have any recipes that you enjoy, feel free to send them my way at lilvollmer@gmail.com. I definitely could use help from people who know what they're doing.
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