I love to bake. Really. I love the whole process of baking. I love to look at recipes online. I collect church cookbooks. I can spend hours reading through cooking magazines and thinking about recipes. When I find a recipe I really want to try, I start scouting the shelves of groceries stores and specialty shops for ingredients. I read the recipe over and over so that I’ll be familiar with it when I actually start the baking process. I make sure I have the equipment - pans, mixer, spatulas - that I will need. And I know what I’ll need because I’ve read the recipe so many times.Occasionally, I’ll find a recipe that’s a little different that calls for an ingredient I don’t have on hand. (Most recently, this was cinnamon chips.) Every store I go into, I look for the hard-to-find ingredient. I may not be able to bake the new recipe for a while because I’m keeping an eye out for that ingredient. If I don’t find it after a bit, I’ll talk to the managers at the grocery stores, asking if they can get it. I’ve gone so far as to order it online!
And when I finally get that last ingredient, I’m ready to bake! I set aside plenty of time so that I can be sure I don’t hurry through and miss something. I get out everything I’m going to need, as well as some things I just might need. And then...it’s go time. Most of the time, the results are awesome. However, sometimes, no matter how much I tried, or how much I wanted it to be perfect, it just doesn’t turn out the way I hoped it would. But that doesn’t deter me from trying again - or trying a different recipe.
If you aren’t a baker, or if you don’t like to bake, or even if you’ve never baked, that may not sound like something worth doing. And I will be the first to tell you that if I didn’t engage so completely in the baking process, it’s likely I wouldn’t want to repeat the process. I mean, really, all that preparation for little or nothing?
We’ve been preparing for this 40-Day Journey for a while. We may not have known the details, but we’ve been praying and watching. Now we have a more defined reason to step up our preparation. Just like in the baking process, I am committed to paying more attention to the people around me - that special ingredient of someone in need. I have committed to being diligent in my awareness. I have committed to active engagement. I believe the result will be awesome. But even if it doesn’t turn out just like I imagine, I know that God is in control and all of the glory belongs to Him.
I was recently channel-surfing and came across the Whoopi Goldberg movie Sister Act 2. There’s a song in that movie called "Wake Up and Pay Attention." The message is valid.
Just as when I am on the lookout for a hard-to-find ingredient, I’m committed to being on the lookout for those around me who are in need. I may not find them in the usual places I go, but I’m paying attention more.
Just think...all this preparation will result in a transformed heart in me, as well as a blessing for someone who really needs a blessing.
- Sheree Yasko Hill
My friend Bill and I were eating ribs in Branson, Missouri when we got on the topic of travel. We had known each other about a year, and I knew he traveled extensively, so I asked him, "So is there any country in the world you haven’t been that you would really like to go see?" "I’d love to go to the Holy Lands," he replied. I thought to myself, "You’ve been to over 140 countries and you skipped over the Holy Lands? There is no possible way that he found 140 countries more interesting, compelling, and meaningful than Israel, Jordan and Egypt!"So with a slight seasoning of sarcasm I said, "So what’s wrong with the Holy Lands...you scared a war is going to break out while you’re there or something?" He snapped, "No...I just don’t want to waste my time in a place where I wouldn’t even know what I was looking at!" So I shot back, "Then take me with you, and I will tell you what you’re looking at!"
Now bear in mind, I’d never even been to Canada or Mexico! I hadn’t even been on a flight longer than a few hours, let alone to a foreign country. And I certainly had never been to the Holy Lands! I was actually just caught up in the banter. But then he threw down the gauntlet! "Okay," he said, "let’s go!"
I was in a state of shock. Was he kidding? Serious? Calling my bluff?
Within the week it was evident that he was dead serious. We would fly into Amman, Jordan, and visit the ancient Nabatean capital of Petra. From there we would spend a week in the footsteps of Jesus in Israel. We would finish the trip with an eight-day archaeological tour of ancient Egypt! I was in disbelief. I didn’t even have a passport. Never needed one. They never ask for one when you cross the Mississippi from Tennessee into Arkansas!
When the time finally came for the trip, he loaned me a big suitcase appropriate for international travel. I took it home and started stuffing it with everything I could imagine wanting if I was going to be away from home and half-way-around-the-world for two weeks.
Did I mention my friend is brash? Did I say anything about his lack of boundaries and his general miscalculations concerning personal space? Ha! The night before the trip, he came over to our house, walked over to my neatly packed suitcase, and just started ripping stuff out! He kept muttering things like, "Won’t need that...pffffft...who would ever pack that?...what’s that doing in here?...Don’t travel much, do you!"
I couldn’t believe it! Who unpacks someone else's suitcase? But he wasn’t done! He then pulled out pen and paper and made me a list of what I needed now that he had rid me of what I would not need.
When he left, I was more than a little ticked off! Who did he think he was to come into my house and get into my suitcase and throw out my clothes? But then I heard that little voice of wisdom in my head...OK, actually it was Susan talking sense into me. She simply asked, "Don, if you have never even traveled outside the country, and he has been in over 140 countries, who would know better what to pack...you or him?" Ugh! Right again! And then for the next two weeks I used everything he told me to pack, and missed nothing he through out! Hmmm. Maybe there is something to letting the one more experienced with the journey be the one who tells us what to pack for the trip?
What about this 40-Day Journey Toward a Life of Active Compassion? The Samaritan was obviously prepared in multiple ways for both the journey he planned, and the possible journey he planned for. His travel experience told him what to pack for his journey, but he included some items in his packing that clearly prepared him to be effective when he came upon the wounded man.
This 40-Day Journey is about removing some things that are inside us that do not belong in a lifestyle of active compassion. But it is equally about opening ourselves up to what God would put in, even if we do not believe we need it, or want it! What would God "pack" into your life that would open your eyes, heart, and hands to the needs that are all around you?
- Don McLaughlin
