“Our culture has accepted two huge lies: The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.”
—Rick Warren
Cake and Faith
We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.
- Romans 8:28 (AMP)
I have a little once-daily Purpose Driven Life calendar that I keep on my desk. Unfortunately, I am very bad at changing the calendar every day. I probably skipped all of June and July (as well as good chunks of every other month this year).
The other day, however, I finally decided to update the calendar, and I laughed. It wasn’t enough that the little passage related to what I was going through at that moment- it also made me think of my friend, Nikki.
“The events in your life work together in God’s plan. They are not isolated acts, but interdependent parts of the process to make you like Christ. To bake a cake you must use flour, salt, raw eggs, sugar, and oil. Eaten individually, each is pretty distasteful or even bitter. But bake them TOGETHER and they become delicious. If you will give God all your distasteful, unpleasant experiences, He will blend them together for good.”
Last night, I was thinking about the concept of God using all this mess I’m going through to make a cake, and I found myself half-praying that it “better be an amazing cake.”
Yet, somewhere in there, I find it’s still hard to really trust that God has a plan. I know that when you mix the right ingredients in the right proportions (and add the right amount of heat) you can get a delicious (and not at all diet-friendly) dessert. I never took Chemistry (I’m so bad in math, they actually told me I wasn’t allowed to take it in high school). I couldn’t begin to really explain how it works… but I know that it does.
Just like I know that God can make something beautiful out of what I’m going through right now.
I still find myself doubting though.
And in the midst of my doubt, I think I’m growing frustrated with God. I mean He’s GOD!Wouldn’t it be so much easier on everyone if He just said “Let there be frosting!”?
And God saw that the frosting was good.
