Uncovering Your Adventure

If you have followed my writing for any time at all, you know I don’t especially enjoy cooking. I do it out of necessity of course, but I don’t hang out in the kitchen a lot, so sometimes things escape my notice. As examples, I was in my previous house for quite a while before I realized the “drawer” at the bottom of my oven was, in fact, a second oven. And, it was only a few weeks ago when I discovered that the little rubber button on the side of my faucet changes the stream from regular to power wash. Good grief, I’ve lived here for over a year trying to scrub food from our plates like a fool with unnecessarily gentle water pressure.

And so, it should come as no surprise when this past summer, I made yet another kitchen discovery. As I walked by the sink, the late afternoon sun cast its light just perfectly above my awesome 90’s cabinets, revealing something I had not seen before. Words. Faint, pale and hard to read, but definitely words. I stood there shifting back and forth, attempting to get just the right angle, and was finally able to make it out.

“Love and cooking with reckless abandon.”

They were vinyl letters, long covered over with paint and as you can see in the picture, almost impossible to detect. It initially hit me as amusing that this specific message about “cooking with reckless abandon” was found in my rather under-utilized kitchen. However, that amusement quickly shifted into reflection as I thought, it is actually kind of sad to have a message of adventure like this “covered over.”

I know, I know. For all practical purposes, those words above my cabinets were painted over because someone just didn’t like the decoration anymore. But, in our lived experience, this type of “covering over” is exactly what we do sometimes when God speaks a call into our lives. Like the words above my cabinets, the message originally seems clear, and maybe even exciting. But then if it feels too risky, too hard, or simply like it couldn’t actually be meant for us, we cover it over, look away, and try our best just not to notice it anymore.

As we set out in these first days of 2020, I want you to consider if there are things God has called you to that you may have covered up. I know it can seem really scary to follow God’s call in our lives but remember, He sees the potential in us that we do not. He sees the future of that call and how it will bless His people. And He knows what will come of living out that faded message.

You can trust Him. Uncover that old message in your life and fill in the blank accordingly.

“I hear you, Lord. Let’s do this. Love and _____________ with reckless abandon.”