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The Unseen Smorgasbord
By Kent d Curry
September 5, 2005

Work had me so drained that when I registered to attend a dynamic summer conference, I was looking forward to the food more than the seminar. Not that the classes wouldn’t be worthwhile, but the food was guaranteed delicious. After all, the conference was being held on a college campus and their cafeteria was ranked No. 1 in the nation.

My expectations weren’t dashed. Every meal offered four distinct choices, including such pleasures as shrimp stir fry, veal parmesan, turkey delight, and seafood bisque. Besides the soft serve ice cream, desserts included blueberry pie, coconut cream pie, and too many types of cookies. It was like eating at an exquisite, expensive restaurant for every meal. Even breakfast was worth getting up for.

Except…

There was a football camp running concurrently for area high schoolers and we shared the same dining hours. Every meal, without exception, the players chose pizza. Yes, there was French bread pizza and Hawaiian pizza and every combination of pizza pizza, but pizza is still just pizza. You can order it just about anywhere and anytime. That didn’t matter, the line of pizza eaters went on forever.

Frankly, it’s not all their fault. They were just teenagers, choosing (yet again) the familiar over the unfamiliar, what looked normal over the unusual, the usual—but limited—pleasure of pizza over the delights of steaming veal parmesan.

Many times in life we’re no different. God offers us a cafeteria of delights and possibilities, promising us spiritual blessings and divine maturity, but too often we choose the normal, the safe, the known—the earthbound. It’s what we know. It’s the safest option.

Unfortunately, miracles never occur with that mindset. Blessings are stunted by a lack of spiritual imagination. God rarely works through people who never dream.

The Bible is replete with humans who walked the uncommon path (Esther, John the Baptist, Nehemiah), dreamed the impossible (Abraham, Joseph, Mary), and accomplished the unbelievable (Deborah, Elijah, Peter).

Jesus Himself charged that believers shall “cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-19). None of this is possible without faith in the impossible.

Spiritual pizza is fine enough, yet there’s so much more to God if we’ll just get brave enough to try Him in faith. For His ingredients are always tastier than anything we can conceive.

ninetyandnine.com

© 2005, Kent d Curry

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Kent d Curry is an executive editor of ninetyandnine.com.