Have you ever been embarrassed to the point of tears? I have and for something about which I have no need to be embarrassed - my food allergies. I was at the rehearsal dinner for my niece's wedding, and I couldn't eat a single item in the buffet line without fear of some very unpleasant repercussions before the evening was over. My brother, the father of the bride, very kindly offered to run out and get me something, but whether I sat at the table and ate nothing while everyone else indulged or my brother went out and brought me back something, I was singled out. I didn't just blend in with the rest of the group. I felt the tears burn behind my eyes, which only served to irritate me with myself for being embarrassed.
I hate having all these food allergies because they make me different. At restaurants and social gatherings of all kinds, I have to ask about the food. I can't just partake like everyone else. At home, planning, shopping, and cooking foods I can eat and my husband and I both enjoy takes way more time than I'd like to give it. I often think I need to cut back on my hours at work just so I have time to prepare food I can eat. It's often frustrating, and I don't understand why God gave me a body that rejects so much of what He made to nourish it. I have so many "better" things I could spend my time and energy on!
A couple evenings ago, I prepared a new recipe for veggie burgers that entailed peeling, chopping, and cooking eggplant and combining it with a multitude of various other ingredients, then chilling it for thirty minutes before shaping it into patties. While it chilled, I made ground beef into patties for my husband. My burgers took over an hour of hands-on prep time. My husband's took a couple of minutes. I bemoaned my plight with tears of frustration.
The next morning at church, one of our pastors opened his sermon with a little recap of Paul's life - an amazingly effective evangelist who planted churches all over the Mediterranean area, a man who was constantly on the move for the sake of the Gospel. He visited and encouraged, baptized and strengthened people in their faith. . . then he was arrested and put in prison. No more crowds flocking to hear him; no more churches planted in towns where the Gospel had never been preached. His work stopped. It was paralyzed - for years. What was God thinking?! I mean, come on, God! Really? This is Paul! Paul, the apostle! Didn't You know how much the early church needed him?
Apparently, God knew not only how much the early church needed Paul but how much the church down through the years would need him so to prison he went. What?! Like that makes sense?
While food allergies and prison are not exactly synonymous, the point is that many of us have "prisons" in our lives - handicaps, issues, thorns, things that hold us back, paralyze us, take time away from what we deem as profitable or productive activities. Doesn't God realize that there are so many better ways He could use our time and energy?
Somehow He made it work for Paul. So it makes me wonder, what if these things aren't handicaps at all, what if they're actually venues chosen by God to meet with us, to speak to us, to use us in ways we could never imagine.
I hate having all these food allergies because they make me different. At restaurants and social gatherings of all kinds, I have to ask about the food. I can't just partake like everyone else. At home, planning, shopping, and cooking foods I can eat and my husband and I both enjoy takes way more time than I'd like to give it. I often think I need to cut back on my hours at work just so I have time to prepare food I can eat. It's often frustrating, and I don't understand why God gave me a body that rejects so much of what He made to nourish it. I have so many "better" things I could spend my time and energy on!
A couple evenings ago, I prepared a new recipe for veggie burgers that entailed peeling, chopping, and cooking eggplant and combining it with a multitude of various other ingredients, then chilling it for thirty minutes before shaping it into patties. While it chilled, I made ground beef into patties for my husband. My burgers took over an hour of hands-on prep time. My husband's took a couple of minutes. I bemoaned my plight with tears of frustration.
The next morning at church, one of our pastors opened his sermon with a little recap of Paul's life - an amazingly effective evangelist who planted churches all over the Mediterranean area, a man who was constantly on the move for the sake of the Gospel. He visited and encouraged, baptized and strengthened people in their faith. . . then he was arrested and put in prison. No more crowds flocking to hear him; no more churches planted in towns where the Gospel had never been preached. His work stopped. It was paralyzed - for years. What was God thinking?! I mean, come on, God! Really? This is Paul! Paul, the apostle! Didn't You know how much the early church needed him?
Apparently, God knew not only how much the early church needed Paul but how much the church down through the years would need him so to prison he went. What?! Like that makes sense?
While food allergies and prison are not exactly synonymous, the point is that many of us have "prisons" in our lives - handicaps, issues, thorns, things that hold us back, paralyze us, take time away from what we deem as profitable or productive activities. Doesn't God realize that there are so many better ways He could use our time and energy?
Somehow He made it work for Paul. So it makes me wonder, what if these things aren't handicaps at all, what if they're actually venues chosen by God to meet with us, to speak to us, to use us in ways we could never imagine.
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