christianityI found this fascinating Blog called “It Takes A Church Blog.” I understand from what I have read that this is a Presbyterian slanted blog. So my readers can locate my spirituality, I am slanted toward Charismatic Renewal and the Christian Right.
One might wonder: what are you doing reading Presbyterian stuff? Well, I am simply not intolerant of good Christian nuggets of truth. I am a bit intolerant of anti-Scriptural philosophies; however I live by eat the hay and spit out the sticks – being at least as intelligent as an old cow.
That is my introduction to an excerpt from this blog. The blog entry actually has another title than what I am using. The title I chose is more appropriate to the “aha!” feeling that hit me. Here is the excerpt:
Back when Beth and I lived in Altadena, California, just down the street from us was a bakery called "Patticakes." It was one of those amazing places where everything looks as good as it tastes and virtually every breakfast item included chocolate. But make no mistake, nothing there was cheap. Everything was delicious, beautiful and frightfully expensive.
I remember sitting there one morning eating a chocolate muffin and drinking a latte while a young couple came into to get a quote for a wedding cake. The owner pulled out a book that featured articles from Bon Appetit praising her wedding cakes, showed them spectacular professional photographs of cakes she had made in the past, and then finally the price sheet.
I watched this all and smiled. The bride was looking at the groom pleadingly. Her face saying, “Honey, wouldn’t this be beautiful? This is exactly the kind of wedding cake I have always wanted.” He looked like he was choking. Being a guy, I know what he was thinking as he looked at that price sheet, “A cake? How about a killer big screen TV? It’s about the same amount of money.” But he was a smart boy; he kept his mouth shut, even as he tried to calculate how many months salary would be gobbled down by people in less than 15 minutes.
And right at the very moment when the unspoken tension was the highest, the bakery owner appeared with a tray of assorted pieces of wedding cake that they could sample.
Two bites later, eyes rolled back in his head in chocolate induced ecstasy, the cheapskate groom was ordering this cake for everyone he had ever met.
You see the difference was in the tasting. Once we taste what we really want, the cost is not the issue. Once we learn that we don’t have to settle for the life given to us by thieves and bandits who only want to sell something to us, use us, manipulate us, market to us, or make us live out their vision of life, we are able to really listen to the one who offers us entryway to the life we really want.
For the life that God intended us to have. For the life we were made to have. For the life that Jesus came to bring us, and died to secure for us. For the life of security, freedom, and well-being. For the life that is both eternal and abundant.
The key to life: Once we taste what we really want, the cost is not the issue!
The Bible wisely tells us to count the cost before embarking on a project. Too often we allow the prospect of the cost to intimidate us from steps that may lead to a fulfilling vision. Sometimes we are blessed enough to get a taste. It is in that taste that we decide to for it or not.
Meditate the vision God gives you. In the meditation God will give you a taste. If it is from God, the taste will be irresistible. If you cannot taste God’s vision for you, you will be just adding and subtracting the cost to weigh the benefit. That is reliance on the world or the flesh. That is simply a hit or miss guess.
