Life is Like a Peanut Butter Cookie

I sit here typing this post while eating a gluten and dairy free peanut butter cookie. There is something about biting into a cookie, specifically peanut butter, that every morsel becomes soaked up and inhabited by your taste buds. In some ways, life is like biting into a (insert your favorite) cookie.

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about major life decisions, the future, and all of the potential that lies ahead of me. As I open up my cookie box debating whether to take a bite of that delicious cookie, I find my realisitic self calling out "Wait! Hold on! There is something better than this right now." And, while I feel that I've crowned myself the "Queen of Waiting", I hear God at the other end whispering softly in my ear saying: "Take a bite now. Go ahead. It's okay. Go for it."

Now, I do believe that there are points in our lives where we are called to "wait" for something. You may find yourself in such a place right now. But, I do believe that we can become so carried away with just waiting, sitting back, and watching, that the world passes us by and we have assumed the role of mere bystanders in an old black and white film.

It is this latter season of my life that I find myself in now. I've discovered that all of these opportunities and friendships are beckoning for me to grab hold of them. I'm learning how to take risks that are healthy, how to face the everyday with my eyes wide open, and how to be okay with failing. I am hopeful and awestruck that such a God, a Creator, would choose a servant like me to fulfill his purpose. I am amazed by his love and his grace that he has for me; and how often I lack to actually see it, feel it, and experience it. I am like a child again, sitting at my dad's feet and looking up at him: knowing that I am protected and cared for. Sometimes, this love is hard to experience - all I know is that His grace, His love, is completely free and open to anyone. We just have to choose whether we want to lift up our hands to be placed on his lap or to sit where we are.

It's equivalent to choosing whether we want to taste that fullness of the peanut butter cookie. We can know so much about a product and yet not really know it at all. Take, for example, a computer. If you like Macs or know a great deal about them but do not own one. . . well, that is way different than owning a Mac and getting the full use out of it all of the time.

Here's another example. While in college, a friend was trying to get me to begin a small group for women. I was at a point in my life where I was incredibly shy and quiet and asked "Why me?" And this friend told me: "Alex, you can take classes about teaching and read all of the books, and do all of the homework, but until you get into a classroom to teach kids, you haven't really experienced 'teaching.'" This challenged me to pop my head out of the turtle shell that I enclosed around me for so long and look outside. I began to speak, to share my faith, and to encourage my friends and classmates. I am humbled to write that this once shy and quiet girl has transformed into an outspoken young woman!

And yet, I am re-learning this important life truth again - only this time, with a peanut butter cookie. I see the transformation happening in my life in a way that works to put others first, embraces and tries new opportunities, lives in the present, and makes the future a reality. Through God, He has given me the ability to say "Yes" to things that are of Him, to discern important decisions, and to help others in their spiritual journeys.

All of that said, life is really like biting into a peanut butter cookie. Once you take that first bite and make the option to chew slowly and intentionally, you'll notice flavors that have been there all along.