The REAL Ace of Cakes

I heard it said one time that God is making a cake of our life. He picks the ingredients, and puts them in the batter in just the right proportions.

If we were making the cake, we might tend to leave out the stuff that didn't taste good. In fact, if we're being honest, we may taste the raw eggs and decide they weren't necessary. Flour doesn't really taste that good either. And have you ever tried to down a teaspoon of baking powder by itself? How about drink a bottle of vanilla? Yuck! If I were making a cake of my life, it very likely would only have sugar in it. But that wouldn't be a good cake now, would it?

But God warned us that there will be things in our life that we don't like. "In this life you will have trouble," Jesus once said. That's some promise for becoming a Christian, huh? "Hey, follow me and you'll still have problems."

But, here's the real promise... let Me have control of your life, and I'll make it beautiful. Let me bake your cake... there will still be stuff put in that you don't like. There will still be lots of stirring and whipping and intense heat applied from time to time. But, I promise, at the end, it will be worth it.

The way Jesus said it is this, "...but take heart, for I have overcome the world." The problems of this world are temporary, and if you truly put your faith in Jesus... if you trust him to be the leader of your life, what you'll end up with is a glorious, delicious cake that is your life.

Does anyone else feel...

... $800 billion poorer this morning?

Cynical thought of the day

Watching the news last night, this occured to me: Does anyone else think that maybe the reason congress has no problem raising our taxes is that they never pay theirs?

I now twit

Twitter? I'm a twitterer? Follow my life at 140 chars or less here.

C'mon, you know you wanna.

On mildew, skin diseases, and other important stuff

So, it's February, so I must be reading Leviticus.

One of the parts of the bible that can be very difficult for young believers is all the rules and regulations regarding the seemingly mundane and unimportant- how to deal with a skin disease, what to do if you find mildew in your house, what happens if you have a wet dream, etc. Leviticus covers this in great detail.

While it's really hard to understand the cultural relevance all this stuff had at the time, we can learn a few things by reading this part of the bible: (1) This stuff mattered to people. Skin diseases, mildew, bleeding, could be a matter of life and death, or at least very serious discomfort. Therefore, (2) It mattered to God, because he cares about us and what happens in our lives. Since these rules about sacrifices to atone for diseases and such are very clear, precise, and involved, then we can (3) thank God for grace, that he loves us enough to take the burdens off us and put them on His son, who died so we don't have to atone for this stuff anymore.

It may seem archaic reading about these early rituals, but it sure makes me appreciate the sacrifice Jesus made for me. How about you?

And the snow comes down...

We got about 8 inches at my house last night. I woke up early to clear the drive and shovel the walk and make sure the plow guy came to clear the neighborhood streets (oh, the joys of being HOA president). The streets were sloppy and hard to drive this morning. I actually got stuck trying to leave the gas station where I get my morning Diet Coke fix.

But, there's something magical about the snow. In a world where we're always running from meeting to meeting, event to event, always thinking about the next place we have to be, heavy snow seems to give people a respite- an excuse not to worry about getting somewhere. People who wouldn't think about missing a day of work otherwise throw up their hands as if there's no other option. Meetings that seemed important are suddenly pushed back, and we understand, more than most times, how the insignificant details of our life here on earth can easily overtake us.

So, enjoy today. If you live in Central Indiana, enjoy the snow. Go play like when you were a kid. Take time to take time. Look at the beauty of God's creation in awe of Him, and remember not to sweat the details. Maybe I'll see you on the sledding hill.

Peace.

Breaking the silence

So, here's the problem with blogging. Let's say, hypothetically of course, that you go a week or so with no new post. When you break the silence, you feel like it needs to be something big- a soul searching, earth shaking, thought-provoking post. The longer you wait, the bigger the silence breaker must be.

That's the reason for this post. I didn't want it to get to ten days or more. Stay tuned.

Steve