Thursday June 20 Now I see my problem!!

This retirement thing is like putting a kid in a candy store.  I love to bake and cook.  This week I am baking for my husband’s summer school class, but it is not a big class, so there are left (planned) overs – like frosted chocolate cherry bars and blond brownies.  Yesterday, I noticed that there were only two slices of bread left.  No car to run to the store til night, and Jim is pretty exhausted after teaching on his feet all day. AND, I found packets of yeast in the drawer.  Though it has been many years since I baked bread, it didn’t turn out all that bad. I found some strawberry freezer jam and there is not much better than toasted homemade bread and freezer jam.  Well, you get the picture.

Anyway this morning as I was having my quiet hour, it struck me how happy I was, there in my new office, surrounded by books I love, a beverage at hand, couple versions of my Bible and paper to write on.  As I looked around, I became aware of how rich I am.  No bread, so make some because I can. Cupboards and fridge full. So many clothes I need to store some in other closets…and all my wonderful books. 

I had been reading about Christ’s temptation – we really know very little about those 40 days, and I can scarcely imagine what they were like.  Not only did Christ have no food, but he had no companions, and certainly no things – just wild animals, Mark said.  But Christ persevered, even starving and weakened, thin after forty days of fasting, He resisted Satan’s efforts to destroy Him through temptation. This does come back together…

You see as I looked around my office and at my beloved books, the scent of bread still in the air, the Spirit began to challenge me – with where my affections were placed.  And I am embarrassed to tell you about that conversation. 

I am a child of parents who were children of the depression – don’t get rid of anything because you could use it….so, although I don’t need all the stuff I have, could I really pass it on, recycle it?  And certainly I left hundreds of books over the last year in the hall for others to pick up, but I still have hundreds.  Do I really need them all? 

And back to the loving to cook and bake – I think I need to find a way to give this all to God.  I need to not cook and bake things that give us temporary pleasure and find the courage to focus more on what we need to eat.  Eating should not be a hobby, a recreational activity.