Bread, growing up in my family, was strictly a homemade thing (I never had ‘boughten’ bread until I was a teenager, and I was, um, unimpressed, shall we say). I watched my mother knead that large lump of dough, on average, twice a week. Once, at around six years old, I asked if I could give it a go. Well, what my mother made look easy, turned out to be anything but! That stuff is heavy! And the kneading took arm strength far beyond my years. I know I tried to look as though I was getting it, but soon I was relieved of my position by the executive chef.
Like breadmaking, life is made up of skills that require training, repetition, more training, more repetition, and so on. Watching any skilled tradesman or artisan or artist is a living portrait of one who has invested a great deal of time and energy to hone their craft. It’s thrilling to see them creating with precision and ease, what, for the average spectator, might be unimaginable. Speaking to them almost always reveals the truth. And the truth is that it took them a very long time to get to the point where the work looks this simply accomplished. The other surprising thing is that they love their craft. It brings them joy to work with their materials, watching something become what it wasn’t before. Be it wood, metal, clay, baking, etc., satisfaction is evident. The same holds true for the performing arts.
One aspect of the Christian walk that I repeat ad nauseum is that Salvation’s provision is perfect. It lacks nothing. It supplies us with everything we need for life and godliness. It even provides us with the ‘want to’ to grow and mature through the in-house ministry of the Holy Spirit who lovingly elbows us when we forget or when we search out other trails for our walk.
The somewhat shocking main ‘work’ we are called to is loving one another. Fantastic, you say. Yes, except we don’t often get to choose our ‘one anothers.’ Have you noticed that we are not allowed to cull that list, to sort them into acceptable/unacceptable, pleasing/displeasing, joy/pain categories? Isn’t there something about cultivating the attitude of Jesus? Loving the unlovable? Serving the least? This is where the real work part comes in. It isn’t inherent in our fallen nature to act like that. But back to the previous paragraph. I often think the Egypt-escaping Israelites spent 40 years circling Mount Sinai before they ‘got’ the message and were able to enter the Promised Land. I don’t want to do that. How about you? PD
