And yet, and yet…

The other day I started a new class at my church and put together a Vision Dinner. I wanted it to be a good dinner and thus ordered Chuy’s Mexican Food along with their famous Jalapeno Ranch. I was in a hurry and was late, but realized on my way back to the church that I was out of gas. In the midst of the confusion I had dropped the precious jalapeno ranch. It was a new experience watching the bag with the guacamole and pico de gallo quickly filling with a tide of jalapeno ranch.

Wasn’t feeling great about my timing.

But isn’t that so often where we find ourselves in life? We want to think that we can always just add another activity or program and that there will be time later to get the rest or refreshment we need. And yet, most of the time I find that I need to refill at the same time that I really need to be somewhere.

So what was the ending to my jalapeno ranch story? The event wound up running fine, thanks mostly to my wonderful wife and kids and several of the group that stepped up to help serve and run it smoothly. While folks certainly wished there had been jalapeno ranch, ultimately it was still a wonderful night.

Friend, there will be times when you need to stop to get the rest you’ll need. It’s never a convenient time. And maybe God does that on purpose. How can we know our need unless we feel it?

But in the midst of the chaos of stopping when we need, God provides others to serve, to grow, and to accomplish. Events and programs will move on, especially as we equip and grow others.

Because maybe friends are a little more important than the Jalapeno Ranch.

” Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” Ephesians 4:15-16