love & recipes

“Becoming a Christian might look more like falling in love than baking cookies.” Donald Miller

I recently wrote about baking banana bread. I mentioned in my writing that it took me weeks just to find all the required ingredients. I even followed a “Good House-Keeping” recipe to the tee, but my first attempt was a flop.
What I failed to mention in my first entry was how difficult it was to find white flour. In fact, I traveled to Tamale in search of white flour and after scouring four or more speciality grocery markets, I found a small bag that was imported from India. I was euphoric...ideas of breads and cookies were running through my mental recipe Rolodex. At last, I can bake! I purchased the over priced, imported flour from India and headed back to Yendi. That night I made homemade macaroni and cheese and used my new flour in the cheese sauce. I carefully closed the flour bag and sealed its entire contents inside a Ziploc bag taking caution to push out any air that could spoil my precious flour. The next day, when I opened the flour to begin my baking extravaganza the bag was riddled with small black bugs. “Okay, I can handle this. God, you are teaching me something here...what is it?”
I was discouraged for a few minutes, but I knew that I should have put the flour in the refrigerator immediately after opening and that next time I would do better.
Fast forward one week, I am on my way to Tamale again. My mission is to go back to the same speciality market and purchase more white flour, and this time I will take better caution to avoid any infestation. My first stop is the “Multi-Market” and I walk directly to the aisle where I remember the flour was kept. I purchase the flour along with several other needed items and my enthusiasm begins to builds. It is Saturday, and my plan is to spend Sunday afternoon baking banana bread. As soon as I return to Yendi I put away all my purchases and carefully place the flour in the refrigerator.
Sunday afternoon, I take the flour out of the refrigerator and open it...once again it is riddled with small black bugs.
“Okay God... I cannot handle this, you know how excited I was to make this bread!”
In my state of disillusion, I stomp over to the neighboring mission house and share my story with the resident caretaker. As I am grumbling to him, I can see on his face that he is not quite understanding my entire story. I ask him,
“Is there any place in Yendi I can purchase flour?”
His response was, “Sure, do you want artificial flowers or living flowers?
At this point I begin to laugh even through my disdain, “No. Walker, I need flour used to bake bread... You know, white flour?” After a few minutes of explaining white flour to him, he nonchalantly answered,
“Oh yeah, there is a bread manufacturing business here and you can get flour anytime you want.”
Later when I was trying to process the “white flour” incident (as I like to call it), I came across some insight while reading a book. The author of the book said that becoming a Christian might look more like falling in love than baking cookies. After I read those words, I knew that my “white flour” incident had a greater significance than I originally suspected.

Here I am diligently searching for something, finding that “something” in the wrong place, realizing that “something” is inadequate, and then returning again for more of that “something” (How true is that pattern outside of my baking life?).

God, I don’t want to follow a recipe to know you, I want to fall in love! I want my relationship with You to be exuberant, euphoric, and complicated. I want to work at IT, cry over IT, and at the end of the day find myself utterly satisfied with You!

My prayer as you read these words is that you desire to fall in love with God not because His Love fits into a three-point sermon, fall in love with God because His Grace is unending. His Power is magnificent. His Mystery is alluring. His Affection for us never-ceases. He Is Truly Lovable.
...entry written 27th September, 2009