Reason #536
We tried something new for dinner tonight. Got a little adventurous, I suppose you could say. Aaron signed up to receive a fruit and veggies basket at work in an attempt to encourage employees to eat healthier. We aren't the unhealthiest people alive, but we could improve. We got lucky, as our basket was mostly full of fruit, which we love. We managed to eat a pineapple and watermelon the first day and have been diligently working through the rest of our produce. We decided to step out on a limb and try to do something with the eggplant that was in our basket. First off, who even eats those? I don't even know what you're supposed to do with an eggplant. One time I sampled a bite of eggplant parmesan, and I remembered that I didn't hate it, so I figured we could give it a try. We took our healthy veggie, and just as the recipe said, we cut it up and fried it, smothered it with sauce and cheeses and baked it until the cheese was bubbling. It smelled really good and didn't look half bad either! I even made sure to cook some spaghetti noodles to go with it, just like they do in the restaurants. And so we sat down, said our prayer, and agreed that we'd both take the first bite at the same time. It was okay, the first bite. It was also really small. I decided to try a bigger bite so I could really taste it, and I almost threw up. I have never reacted to food like this before. I've always heard people say, "I don't like _______ because of the texture." I never really understood that comment until tonight, as I've usually just disliked certain foods for the taste. But my tastebuds and brain could not get together on this one, and I couldn't figure out what I was eating. Aaron, being the trooper that he is, was taking the largest bites possible in an attempt to swallow them whole, however, after watching my many faces of disgust, he also began to feel the same way. And so I ate my garlic toast, which was actually half of a hotdog bun because the bread was moldy (should have taken that as a hint) and threw the rest of my dinner in the trash.
I hate when things don't work out. Nothing irritates me more than to put effort, time, and money into something that fails. Fortunately, this was a cheap dinner and made for a good laugh, but we still spent at least an hour between cooking and cleaning up, not to mention that we both ended up feeling unsatisfied. In fact, our appetites were so ruined even Chick-Fil-A didn't sound appealing. Thankfully, this isn't a regular occurrence at our house, but this is a regular occurrence in life, I think.
I've been there before, and I'm sure you have, too. You've put a lot of effort into something. You've really tried and spent a lot of time on whatever it was because you fully believed it was going to turn out well. You figured if you followed the right steps, you'd get the desired result. And maybe things were looking promising. Maybe it appeared that you did everything right and it was, in fact, going to work out. It was going to meet your expectation, and maybe even exceed it. From a distance, it looked appealing and just as you had imagined. But you cut inside, and you were wrong. All of the sudden, you realized that something went wrong along the way. And maybe it wasn't you, maybe it was just the fact that you had expected too much. And maybe, you were just wrong in the first place no matter how you did it. Because it just wasn't going to work out for you. It just wasn't going to be what you had imagined. And so you did what you thought you'd never have to do and you found it, whatever it was, in the trash. Thrown out because there was no use or desire for it. No matter how much you wished differently, this is the reality now. And you're left feeling unsatisfied, disappointed, and maybe even a bit like a failure. If only you had known it was going to go like this, you would have saved yourself all the work, the hassle, the disappointment, embarrassment and heartache up front by not even trying it in the first place.
Such is life, my friends. We never know what we really needed to know when we needed to know it, do we? We've just got to try things out sometimes. But the thing that I've found is most valuable is the result. Because in the end, you'll have the true answer you need and you'll be wiser for it. Aaron and I are not going to be cooking eggplant parmesan again. We didn't like it, and we both feel that it's not worth the effort, but had we never cooked it, we would have never known. Now we know. And even though life isn't as easy to clean up or deal with as eggplant parmesan, we serve a God who can help us take whatever broken mess we bring to Him and let it go. He'll take it from us if we'll just let Him, and He'll use it to teach us really valuable lessons so that we know what to do or not to do next time. I don't think God gets upset with us when things don't work out as planned, but rather, I believe it is how we handle the outcome that He is concerned with. There is nothing on this earth that God cannot fix. There is nothing that He can't do. But He also lets us learn our lessons. And maybe that means we have to learn it the hard and humbling way every now and then, but He is a God who never leaves us unsatisfied. No, if we'll just take Him what we've got, the remnants, even if we hate them and think it's impossible to feel any differently about them, He will somehow, someway bring satisfaction. Whether it be with His love, His forgiveness, His peace or His comfort, He will satisfy our hungry and desperate hearts and give us hope for better things to come.
#536 - For a God who satisfies hungry hearts with hope for better things.
"I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy." - Psalm 63:4-5
I hate when things don't work out. Nothing irritates me more than to put effort, time, and money into something that fails. Fortunately, this was a cheap dinner and made for a good laugh, but we still spent at least an hour between cooking and cleaning up, not to mention that we both ended up feeling unsatisfied. In fact, our appetites were so ruined even Chick-Fil-A didn't sound appealing. Thankfully, this isn't a regular occurrence at our house, but this is a regular occurrence in life, I think.
I've been there before, and I'm sure you have, too. You've put a lot of effort into something. You've really tried and spent a lot of time on whatever it was because you fully believed it was going to turn out well. You figured if you followed the right steps, you'd get the desired result. And maybe things were looking promising. Maybe it appeared that you did everything right and it was, in fact, going to work out. It was going to meet your expectation, and maybe even exceed it. From a distance, it looked appealing and just as you had imagined. But you cut inside, and you were wrong. All of the sudden, you realized that something went wrong along the way. And maybe it wasn't you, maybe it was just the fact that you had expected too much. And maybe, you were just wrong in the first place no matter how you did it. Because it just wasn't going to work out for you. It just wasn't going to be what you had imagined. And so you did what you thought you'd never have to do and you found it, whatever it was, in the trash. Thrown out because there was no use or desire for it. No matter how much you wished differently, this is the reality now. And you're left feeling unsatisfied, disappointed, and maybe even a bit like a failure. If only you had known it was going to go like this, you would have saved yourself all the work, the hassle, the disappointment, embarrassment and heartache up front by not even trying it in the first place.
Such is life, my friends. We never know what we really needed to know when we needed to know it, do we? We've just got to try things out sometimes. But the thing that I've found is most valuable is the result. Because in the end, you'll have the true answer you need and you'll be wiser for it. Aaron and I are not going to be cooking eggplant parmesan again. We didn't like it, and we both feel that it's not worth the effort, but had we never cooked it, we would have never known. Now we know. And even though life isn't as easy to clean up or deal with as eggplant parmesan, we serve a God who can help us take whatever broken mess we bring to Him and let it go. He'll take it from us if we'll just let Him, and He'll use it to teach us really valuable lessons so that we know what to do or not to do next time. I don't think God gets upset with us when things don't work out as planned, but rather, I believe it is how we handle the outcome that He is concerned with. There is nothing on this earth that God cannot fix. There is nothing that He can't do. But He also lets us learn our lessons. And maybe that means we have to learn it the hard and humbling way every now and then, but He is a God who never leaves us unsatisfied. No, if we'll just take Him what we've got, the remnants, even if we hate them and think it's impossible to feel any differently about them, He will somehow, someway bring satisfaction. Whether it be with His love, His forgiveness, His peace or His comfort, He will satisfy our hungry and desperate hearts and give us hope for better things to come.
#536 - For a God who satisfies hungry hearts with hope for better things.
"I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy." - Psalm 63:4-5
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