Faith as a Recipe

I'm always cooking.

It’s the beginning of the year and many people planned their semi-annual exodus from social media. By the way, if you’re going to do it, be smart about it. You can read my strategy here. Often, people are leaving to focus on their faith or things have become so negative they need to detox. Either way, January seems to be the month a lot of people pay attention to their faith. 

I heard an interesting approach to fitness that made me think of my faith journey. I find that it is wise not to have a cookie cutter recipe for my faith walk. We’re all in different seasons of life so it is extremely difficult to follow the same formula as everyone else. Take a regular, beginner cook such as myself. I have to follow the recipe and measure EVERYTHING if I want my dish to work. Trust me, I tried to make a casserole without following a recipe and my husband still remembers it as the worse dish I’ve ever cooked. If you don’t count all the stuff I’ve ever burned. Any way, when you start, you have to follow the recipe. 

As the years rolled by, I became more familiar with certain recipes. I no longer have to follow a recipe to cook rice and beans from scratch. I know what every ingredient does to the dish, so I get to create something amazing every time, beginner recipe-free. I thought this applied to my faith walk because I am no longer in the beginner stage. I know Jesus, I am deeply committed to learn His word and I am very much committed to obey His word. It’s not wise for me to take a 101 course because at this point, I ought to be encouraging someone who is in that stage. 

The other day, I was helping my kids to learn how to ride their bikes. It would be foolish of me to get on a starter bike and learn something I already know. I am not only able to teach but with the type of bike I have, I am ready to train for some serious road racing. 

There are a lot of beginner recipes for faith building out there (which is good). It’s easy to mindlessly follow the beginner recipe. I am challenging you and I to recognize how far God has brought us. I am challenging us to share what we learned with others through encouragement in the Word. I’m not challenging you to start your own Bible study (unless you are called to do that of course). I am saying we can offer to go to Bible study with someone who is not familiar with that world (it is a different world and it can be intimidating if you are new to it). I am saying you can be vocal about reading the Bible in a year or praying more often and you can ask if any of your friends want to join you. I believe that God’s word causes us to grow and that growth should be shared with others.