My apologies.

Wolfies.
I am terribly sorry. My absences are unacceptable.
If you were here I would hope you would throw something at me and call me all kinds of irresponsible names.

Ha.

But I promise you, it was not without reason.
No.
So one of those big projects I was telling you about a few weeks ago involved something I agreed to do months ago. Like when it was still winter.
That being the case, I pretty much didn’t do anything for it until about three weeks ago because when I agreed to it so long ago I figured I had all the time in the world. Which, doesn’t surprise me because….. well…… that’s how I do things: with just enough time.

What I had said a sure “yes” to was helping some friends out East by catering a conference they put on.

A five-day conference.
For 130 people.
Yeah.
That’s right.

Because as you well know this is exactly the kind of thing I say “yes” to for no good reason other than this is an experience I want to be able to say I have had and that I want the skill set it will produce to be securely up my sleeve. Even if it does seem to be a little excessive.

All that being said, that’s where I have been: cooking food for people I don’t know in the middle of nowhere in the woods without any kind of cell phone or internet service.

And it was awesome.

Not just the no cell service and no internet (although there was something very freeing about forgetting I had a business and email for a week), but all of it. The food and the running around and the crazy hours and the being with people I don’t know---all of it. Loved it.

However, I must add that it was not without its ups and downs.

No. In a blaze of something only God would think was a good idea, I got sick. On the first day. Like, “I-need-to-go-lay-down-for-14-hours” kind of sick. I know. I was thinking the same thing you are.

Only maybe more shocked. Because I haven’t gotten sick in six years.

But, would you believe that it was, like I suspected, a very good thing?

And then, because He is just so good like this, he gave me the MOST AMAZING kitchen staff to help me and save my culinary life. Over and over again. These people showed me undeserved grace and favor in ways I, honestly, have never felt before.

I mean, why would they be good to me?!?!

 They didn’t know me from Eve, they owed me nothing, and frankly, I hadn’t done anything good to them. Yet, there they were, being the willing hands that can only be produced by servant hearts.
They were beautiful people, and God uses his people.

Then of course, you can’t come away from a week of cooking without having one frantic, panicked, scared, and utterly desperate situation.

Which I did.

But. Again. I. Was. Saved.

By an amazing God who gave his amazing people amazing ideas.

And as all the madness was being put under control by people who were not me, all I was able to do was sit. Sit on a stool, having a metal whisk-burned hand placed in a bowl of milk, watching unfold before me a rescued disaster that should have been any chef’s moment of pride, and do nothing. Just nod and say, “Yes, good job. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

Because, see, here’s the deal: If going into last week I had any thought, any concept, and ulterior motive that I was somehow going to “be in control,” or think that it was somehow ME who had cooked for however many people; if there was any notion in my head that I was going to somehow take some “credit” for the work I did, that all was pretty well shot to pieces in about the first 6 hours.

And then again 30 hours later.
And then 27 hours after that.
And then the next morning, too, just for good measure.

Because truth be told, it wasn’t me. Not one bit of it. Sure, maybe they were my plans and my recipes, but beyond that….well….I was sitting on a stool with a burning hand in a bowl of milk.

And that’s what I could take credit for.

For burning myself.
But not for rescuing my hand.
No. I couldn’t even take credit for that.

I guess it just brought to light the fact that Believers really are a body; we need each other. Brains are no good if they have no hands to complete the work.

I know that full well.
And what good are hands if there is no heart or muscle to activate it?

“If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” (I Cor. 12:17-20)

 

Babies, we need each other. I promise you, you cannot do this life without people. Without a body holding you up, consoling your tears, or putting your burning hand in a bowl of milk.

~~

Before I jetted East, I had a bit of a photoshoot.
No surprise there.
Here are a couple snap shots.