“ Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust. So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.” (2 Peter 1:1-9 MSG)
Wednesday is the day that I prepare dinner for my household and the family of two healthcare workers who live nearby, one a nurse and the other an operations manager. This is my way of giving them at least one day they don’t have to deal with cooking after working extended hours during the pandemic. It is a way of showing appreciation for all they do to help humanity through this crisis.
Last Wednesday I prepared a large ham and supplemented it with fruit and potato salad. We had plenty even after sharing a good portion with the couple. I started to sound like Forrest Gump’s friend Bubba when I described to my house members what the menu would be for the rest of the week. Instead of shrimp dishes, I kept rattling off ham dishes. “We are going to have green eggs and ham, ham sandwiches, ham salad, ham tacos, ham-bone soup, ham quiche, ham casserole, and of course ham & beans.” I was joking about most of this, with the exception of ham sandwiches and ham & beans.
So Thursday we have ham and beans. The ham was still delicious because I had baked it using my special glaze and basted it every half hour per pound. The beans came in a jar that said right on the label, “Fully Cooked.” It would not have been delicious however, if I had not been helped to recognize that I did not add anything else to enhance the flavor of the beans, although in the past I must have.
How do I know that I must have added another ingredient in the past? Well, at dinner time, my wife warms up the pot I had prepared a couple of hours before. Wisely, she takes a small spoonful and puts it in a cup to sample what I had prepared. Immediately I hear her voice speak these words, “Mark, did you add any sugar to the beans?” She asked it right, but when it came through my prism, all I heard was, “Somethings missing in the ham and beans!” What else could I say, but tell the truth, “No. I forgot. “ And then I asked, “Can you add some to them.” She did and all was well throughout our total interaction. And once added, everything was delicious, so much so that we had it for dinner the next day and for lunch two days later. The missing ingredient made things a whole lot better, as close to perfect as you can get.
So much for Chef Mark’s story. Let’s look at every Christian’s story! Whether it one of the ingredients that Peter exhorts us to add to our faith, “good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love” or if it we are missing, deemed so by those who get a taste of our Christianity, any manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit identified by Paul, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, once it is brought to our attention by someone in your home, a homey, or the Holy Spirit, you need to add the missing ingredient right away! Your day will be a whole lot better, as close to perfect as you can get in this life. Now I know what you are going to cook soon, some ham and beans, but today, on this very day, do some “cooking” with the ingredients that belong in every Christian’s character pot, on. Be blessed!
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23 ESV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King