Cook The Snot Out Of It

If you've ever tried to eat with me, you've noticed that it can, at times, be rather difficult. Why? Because I am allergic to everything. If it's a fresh fruit or vegetable, there's an 80% chance I'm allergic to it. Until you cook the snot out of it. Once it's cooked to oblivion, we're good to go... And I can enjoy the same delicious things as you.

It's called Oral Allergy Syndrome and actually stems from my environmental allergies. Basically I'm allergic to whatever plants the foods grow on. Lots and lots of people with OAS experience symptoms that come and go with their seasonal allergies. But not me. No. That would be simple and cool and peachy keen, jelly bean. Mine are here year-round. And they're severe. Like anaphylaxis severe. Which makes eating an adventure.

You'd be amazed at what you can cook, though! There are very few fruits and veggies that you can't somehow cook enough to eat. My dear friend Jennifer has allergies similar to mine and she's been a great resource of new recipes and ideas. A few months ago, she discovered that we can take frozen strawberries, boil the snot out of them, refreeze them, thaw them and use them in a smoothie or protein drink. BERRIES! For the first time in years! Oh, berries, how I'd missed thee! 

Tonight, I decided to get a little bit adventurous. I did the strawberries, as normal, and added bananas and cherry juice. A little twist of the flavors... Have you ever boiled a banana? That's a sight to see. Gross and really cool all at the same time. I also discovered tonight that it's time to invest in an immersion blender. Just strawberries can be mashed up pretty well with a potato smasher, but the bananas change the texture of the whole mixture just enough that it would be more pleasant with an immersion blender. Or maybe I'm just lazy. The puree is still pretty chunky tonight, but holy woah! It's delicious! 

Here's my recipe:

4lbs frozen strawberries

4 bananas, yellow (not green, not brown, not purple)

12ish oz. cherry juice

I made it in the cast iron pot... Put the strawberries in the pot (frozen), break the banana into halves or thirds, pour the cherry juice over everything. Turn the heat on to medium high (NOT HIGH) until the cherry juice starts to boil, then turn it down to medium. Let it cook for a half hour, use your potato masher or immersion blender, pour into storage containers or ice cube trays, freeze. 

When you're ready for a real fruit popsicle, pop a cube out of the tray and eat it. If you're ready for some flavored yogurt, a bowl of plain yogurt and a cube is fabulous. For a smoothie, yogurt and several cubes. Jenn even adds protein powder! 

I know you're totally jealous that I can make an entire smoothie in just under 12 hours (because fruit doesn't freeze that quickly, after it comes off the boiling stove). You're probably jealous that I eat grilled romaine lettuce and kale, too. And that I roast bananas in honey. And that I have a perfectly legitimate medical reason for not eating my brussels sprouts. 

But I'm telling you, next time you go to eat a salad, be glad you don't have to cook it. Because cooked salad just isn't the same. 

Water and Wine

Every month at our church Cabinet meeting, we complete a task or discussion activity that aims to keep us mindful of our mission. Tonight, we had a discussion prompt. We worked in partners and were to give an example of when a church had turned water into wine for us and then an example of when a church had turned wine into water for us.

In John 2, there's a story where Jesus, his mom Mary, and Jesus' disciples are at a wedding. They ran out of wine at the wedding and Mary was freaking out to Jesus about it. Jesus basically told Mary it wasn't really his problem. Mary ordered the servants to do what Jesus said, so Jesus told the servants to fill all the jars with water and take it to the chief steward. To his pleasant surprise, when he drank from the jugs, the water had miraculously become wine. Yeah! Party on! 

So what's my water to wine? My most recent water to wine moment was on the missions trip last week. I didn't go with the expectation that I would be helping to lead vespers, to offer a prayer of blessing for a new garden or to prepare for a communion service. But I was given all of those opportunities. What I thought would be missions work and chaperoning youth was truly an opportunity for ministry I'd never gotten before.  It doesn't seem like much... But it went from being an ordinary day of work to a sacred time of preparing communion and peaceful prayer before vespers. In many of those moments, I felt closer to God than I ever had before. 

Digging into the wine to water was a little bit harder for me, though. I don't know that I'm ready to publicly share the first one that comes to mind (it isn't even the one I shared with Susan tonight). Maybe that's because it's still one I grapple and struggle with. Maybe because I know that it's one that would likely be taken the wrong way and unintentionally offend someone. And part of it is that it's hard to articulate how something that has been so sacred to me has slowly been pulled apart, thread by thread. 

But don't we have the most to learn from our wine to waters? Aren't the wine to waters the ones where division happens? Where people get hurt? Where disagreements come to surface? Where we have to let conflict be present?

Guess what?! Churches aren't perfect. Sometimes, we mess up. We turn what are really good and awesome things into not so awesome things. We get wrapped up in how awesome they are and how we could make them even more awesome, instead of letting them be what they are and we try too hard. So how do we avoid that? How do we know when to leave good things alone and not mess with them anymore? I don't really have the answers, just the questions... But I know that I have to explore that because I don't want to turn anyone's wine into water. 

Conversations Of God with Teens

I get to spend the next few days with a pretty awesome 16-year-old kid. I've known him for a long time and even though he sometimes has his moments, I love him dearly. Tonight, he asked what he would have to wear to church on Sunday morning when he goes with me. And then our conversation took an interesting turn.

I asked how often C goes to church and if he likes it. He likes church, so I asked what his favorite part of going to church was. Somehow (don't remember exactly how we got there) we started talking about wearing hats in church. He asked if it was wrong to wear a hat in church. I don't know about you, but I really don't think God cares what we wear to church. I told him that some might find it disrespectful to wear it, but that if he wanted to wear a hat to church, it would be okay with me. I didn't think God was going to be upset about it.

And then came the issue of cussing. Anyone who has been around me for any length of time knows that I have a mouth. Sometimes I try to hold my tongue more than other times, but I have a mouth. Here was C's explanation of the issue: someone somewhere along the way told me I can''t believe in God and cuss, but I do both.

Oh, dear child.... Here's the way I see it: We're humans. Language is required to communicate. And sometimes, we have to communicate strong, harsh and unpleasant things. So long as you're not using harsh and unpleasant language towards or about another person in a manner that is hurtful or disrespectful, sometimes, you just have to use it. Please don't get tripped up over this... I don't think it's a topic worth making a fuss over. BUT. On the other hand, your parents have rules regarding your language and I do expect that you follow them. And I will hold you to them. So don't think that you can go around saying whatever you want. You can't. But don't think that God's going to smite you if you say you've had a shitty day.

This is the thing that bothers me so often... Some people get so wrapped up in the things they think God sees as wrong that we forget to show people the awesome, cool and wonderful things about God. Like grace, mercy and love! And so what if we cuss? Doesn't mean God loves us any less! Doesn't mean we can't believe in God!

We talked a little more and C seemed upset that nobody else in his youth group ever seems to doubt God. That breaks my heart... In my eyes, part of being a spiritual leader means inviting people to wonder about God, doubt God and question God... In my faith journey, those points were the points where my understanding of God grew most deeply and profoundly. And because I have been allowed to wonder and doubt and question, I know in my heart of hearts that God is there. And always has been and always will be. But I had to find that conclusion for myself. Just like C will have to find that for himself.

It is not our job to spoon-feed our kids their faith. It is our job to live our faith, to demonstrate our faith, to be real and practical about our faith and it's application in our daily lives. To allow our kids to explore and question and to accompany them on that journey. That way, it's personal. It's real. Faith actually means something.