Fried Cheerios

Cheerios can help lower your cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease ... at least that’s what it says on the cereal box. I just happened to read that after putting a stick of butter in a pan full of cheerios and frying them up then for breakfast. Yes, that’s right ... Fried Cheerios! Perhaps it’s a cooking philosophy that comes from our Southern heritage, or maybe it’s just the way our taste buds work - either way, in the Tanner ancestry, we believe that most any food can be made better by frying it ... or adding butter to it. Fry it in butter ... and well then my friend, as far as we’re concerned, the ordinary has become the divine!

Somewhere in time, that ingenious combination of frying pan, butter, and Cheerios was created ... and it’s been a tradition in our family ever since. The only problem ... I don’t think the “lower your cholesterol” and “reduce heart disease” bit applies to our kind of Cheerios. In fact, I’m most certain that the assurance of better health was never even intended for people who were going to eat their cereal out of a frying pan instead of a bowl; and soaked in butter instead of milk. I guess we could think of it this way: the promise on the box depends on how you eat what’s in the box ... or maybe simply this: there’s a right way and a wrong way to eat Cheerios. That being the case, we Tanners, are sure doing it the wrong way ... the oh-so-good wrong way!

In John 10:10, Jesus says that He comes into our lives to give us “a rich and satisfying life.” One translation of the verse says it this way, He comes to give us “real life ... more and better life than we could ever dream of.” Wow – that’s quite a promise, isn’t it? The challenge though is this: the rich and satisfying life, the more and better life than we could ever dream of ... it’s all contingent on living life the right way – His way!

It’s important for us to see God’s instructions, His commands as more than just a list of do’s and don’ts ... and rather instead, that we would see them as the way in which life works best. Life is better when you can forgive freely and love unconditionally ... because God said that’s how we should live and how He says we should live results in a rich and satisfying life for us! Life is better when you can live it in the context of community and church family! Life is better when, in humility, you can learn to look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others! Life is better when you can be kind one to another ... when you can serve one another in love ... when you can submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Why? Because those are God’s instructions ... and His instructions lived out provide for us real life, even more and better life than we could ever dream of! Marriage life is better when a husband is loving his wife as Christ loves the Church and a wife is submitting to her husband as unto the Lord. Family life is better when children are obeying their parents and parents aren’t provoking their children to anger. Church life is better when believers are living in harmony with one another ... praying for one another, encouraging one another, being patient with one another, accepting one another, honoring one another, teaching one another, being devoted to one another. Even life on the job is better when employees are working for their employer as they would work for the Lord and employers are treating their employees like they would treat the Lord. Oh, isn’t it true ... His directions for life, they truly do lead us to the best life!

Today, I pray that you know what it is to live in the satisfying and richness of life that He’s intended for you! I pray that you would live in the real, the fullness, the better-than-you-could-dream-up kind of life He would desire to give to you? I pray that you never compromise the best for your life by forsaking His directions to instead follow your own! And I pray that you would pray the same for me!

Lord, You’re the best ... and Your way to live life is the best and leads to the best life for me! Help me to always remember that!

Trust in the Lord

"We’re depending on GOD; he’s everything we need.
No wonder we are happy in the Lord!
For we are trusting him. We trust his holy name.
Love us, GOD,with all you’ve got—that’s what we’re depending on.”
Psalm 33:20

Today my three-year old daughter wanted to go outside and play. After asking if she could, I had to be the bearer of bad news and tell her she couldn’t – mom and dad were busy and so there’d be no one to watch her. Without missing a beat, she proceeded to tell me that she would watch over herself. “I can watch me, dad” ... I think were her exact words. And she said it with such confidence and conviction – as far as she was concerned the matter was settled, the problem had been solved ... there was no one to watch her but now there was and so, perceiving no need for further discussion or dialogue, she proceeded to march triumphantly out the door. I didn’t know what to do ... well, actually I did – I told my wife I had to go to the church and work on my blog so she’d have to take care of the whole “I’ll watch myself” situation!

An independent, self-sufficient, I-don’t-need-you-dad attitude like that in a three-year old!? That’s not right, is it? And, if she’s this way now, what is she going to be like in ten years ... what am I going to do when she turns thirteen? I can’t live at the church and blog my way through her teenage years, can I?

Oh the joys of dealing with our kids’ “I can do it myself” attitude, right?

As I consider that, I can’t help but think that God probably feels the same way sometimes ... only I’m the kid, I’m the one telling Him, “I can take care of myself.” I wonder if God sees me struggling with the independence of a three-year old daughter and under His breath sort of snickers and comments, “Welcome to my world, son!”

I’m not sure why I would ever have the audacity to think I could make it through life for even one moment without God - I’m not sure why I’d ever be so foolish as to even try ... but I know the reality is that there are times when that’s exactly what I do. I think I can do it, I can figure it out, I can solve the problem ... I think I can do life without Him. And so, I don’t seek Him in prayer ... I don’t listen for Him in Bible reading ... I get so busy trying to take care of me, that I trick myself into thinking I can actually do it. It makes me to wonder ... how many times have I missed out on His power because I was trusting in my own? How many times have I missed out on God’s wisdom because I was content with man’s? How many times have I missed out on His perfect will because I was lost pursuing mine? How much more of His blessing and His favor and His goodness and His protection would I have experienced if only I hadn’t told Him, “I can watch me, Dad”?

The prophet Isaiah talks about a day when Judah had decided they would be fine without God. There was an enemy getting ready to attack and rather than depend on God and His strength, they decided they would take care of themselves. Their brilliant plan was to make an alliance with Egypt ... after all, why seek help from the Lord when Egypt was there ready and willing. God was not pleased and in Isaiah 30:5, lets His people to know the outcome of trusting in someone else, “Anyone stupid enough to trust them will end up looking stupid!”

Wow – isn’t that always the way it is: Like the Psalmist, depend upon the Lord and find happiness ... or ... like Judah back in the day, depend upon someone other than the Lord and end up looking stupid!

Lord – we don’t want to be stupid or look stupid, so help us to depend on You and only You ... all the time, every time!