Gourmet Update

OK, so here we are, 26 days into 2011. How's the new year working for you so far? This time a year ago I was all excited about the "Gourmet Initiative" Rebekah and I adopted for 2010. I thought now would be a great time for a review.

Our plan, in case you missed it the first time, went like this.

1. I had given Rebekah three new cookbooks for Christmas.
2. I promised to cook one new recipe per week during 2010.
3. All she had to do was thumb through and find something special that she wanted to eat.

The idea was to challenge the boundaries of my skill set as a chef. I was a decent cook in general, but over the years my imagination waned, and I had to admit I repeated my "standards" every couple of weeks, so that everything I prepared was beginning to taste the same...

For 2010, following new recipes (to the "t"), I wanted to learn new techniques, tap fresh resources, force myself to research new ingredients, and expand my repertoire in the kitchen (see exhibit A - above right, shrimp parmigiana with my home-made marinara sauce...).

Rebekah and I had completely rebuilt our kitchen that summer, we stocked it with matching, professional cookware for Christmas, and I wanted to give Rebekah an exceptional gift - something that would last all year long.

The results are in:

The idea was an unqualified success. Too good. I enjoyed the gourmet challenge so much that Rebekah found herself on the receiving end of kitchen heroics more than one day a week. In fact, by the middle of March we both added a few too many pounds! So this time she bought me a cook-book for my birthday. The title "Cooking yourself Thin", was exactly what we needed.

Well, we tweaked the calories, added an amazing cookbook called "The Three-Hour Diet", and pretty much revolutionized our entire approach to food during the course of the year.

All told, by December 31, the promised 52 gourmet experiences stood closer to 152. Both of us lost some weight. But, most importantly, we established a shift in culture that has impacted my life across the board.

Gourmet Living:
By and large (pun intended), I believe most Americans eat too much because they are, simply put, unsatisfied. Junk food - and junk living - cannot satisfy. However, because it's all that we know, we gorge ourselves in the baseless hope that it will.

If the accumulation of wealth, for example, is your standard for "the good life", then of course you are going to pursue the goal even when it leaves you feeling empty... because the answer is always "More! Then I'll be satisfied." It's the same thing with power, with illicit relationships, with substance abuse, etc....

The principle follows when it comes to junk food. It simply doesn't satisfy, so we feel like we have to eat more and more to fill the emptiness. But it never will satisfy - that's the point! We end up overweight and disappointed.

Good quality food with great flavor is satisfying. There's no need to gorge.

Gourmet life is no different. If we pursue the truth, if we address a relationship with our Creator that guides our life, then balanced living, addressing the spiritual reality as well as the physical, will also be a rewarding life.

As for me, I'm interested to see where my commitment to gourmet living is going to take me during 2011. A well-seasoned 2011. Life is good... God is good.

Cultivated Mellow; Life as a Soul-Nurturing Retreat

It's a peaceful Saturday morning, here in west-central Florida. The temperature reading for my walk with Scout was around 65 and the pollen was, for the most part, keeping a low profile. When we returned I ground some coffee beans - Fair Trade "Equal Exchange" Colombian - and spent a half hour or so reading the morning paper with Rebekah.

Rebekah is still working today's crossword puzzle, occasionally sharing a clue for my opinion on a word choice. She's being deliberate about the mental exercise, jump-starting her consciousness with an early morning combination of fresh air, caffeine and brain gymnastics; she'll spend some devotional time on the bench out in the patio later, then head into the office to work on tomorrow's message.

I always enjoy the way morning unfolds around our house. There's a deliberate pattern each day, yes, but the process feels more like a purposeful meandering than a strict regimen. It's like we're participants in a soul-nurturing retreat, every day. Once in a while the routine is broken by early morning commitments; but - by and large - we launch each day with a kind of cultivated mellowness, and I'm thankful beyond words that we're able to do this.

Effect:

Consequently, I write out of a peaceful heart. And it's not just because we're "middle-aged", empty-nesters, have cushy jobs, "successful", or financially secure. None of those factors are necessarily givens; they're all subject to change. Besides, Rebekah's work can be extremely stressful, my income goes up and down like a yo-yo, and good health has never been something we've been able to take for granted.

No, the fact that "I write out of a peaceful heart" has to do with faith, love, commitment, faithfulness, purpose, grace, and the fact that the work we're involved in is deeply meaningful.

Sometimes I'm behind and way too busy; sometimes Rebekah is dealing with heart-shattering situations; sometimes we're stretch beyond capacity because of our work, or financially, or regarding difficult people; sometimes we find ourselves over-committed; sometimes things simply don't go the way we had planned...

... But my peaceful heart does not depend on such things. My faith does not require assistance from happenstance, the vicissitudes of the economy, or the cooperation of a world which is itself in need of redemption.

In fact, as Paul put it so well in Romans 8 (read the entire chapter, it's an amazing piece of literature), the world is waiting for us to "get it"! Rather than our faith being dependent on the world around us lining up in our favor, the world around us is looking for those of us who love God to live as if what we preach is actually true!

I've got my mellow on:

So, yes, this morning is one more in a series of soul-nurturing retreats. I've got my mellow on, so to speak. And I'm thankful to God.

Love and blessings - DEREK

Virginia Disciples (part one) - Living Large for God

I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn away from your ordinances, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:100-105)

Okay, here I am - in Brandon and back in my study - wading through all the catch-up stuff that needs to be done. But, before diving in, I paused to spend a few deliberate minutes with God. That's where the scripture (above) spoke to me so clearly.

It's also pretty much the theme from my weekend in Virginia, shared with over 75 men from the Disciples of Christ Church. How do we negotiate our lives? How do we live - intentionally - as children of God committed to living like we mean it; because God most certainly means it? How do we follow Jesus?

I don't want to over-do the superlatives, or to make my use of language inflationary. But, I honestly can't say enough about how positive I feel about the trip to Virginia. It's been almost three years since the release of "GET REAL: a spiritual journey for men" (May of 2007), and since then I've spoken at scores of locations in eight states; but this weekend the message came together in - I believe - a unique way.

The men at Smith Mountain Lake, from all over Virginia, owned a collective hunger for authentic spiritual growth that translated into a palpable sense of receptivity in the room when I spoke.

• It's not just that they listened... they tuned in.
• They didn't just chuckle when I said something funny - they roared.
• They didn't simply pray when we paused to talk with God - they sought God enthusiastically.
• They didn't politely chat in the small-group sessions - they poured their hearts out to one another.
• They didn't just show up for a retreat at the lake - they committed themselves, heart and soul, to moving forward in the spiritual journey as Followers of The Way.

Every time I speak, from a small group of five to my biggest crowd of around a thousand (at Palm Harbor UMC), the experience is interactive. There is a dynamic vested in any gathering of people that impacts both the spirit and the content of what I say.

This weekend, somehow, the Virginia Disciples of Christ gathering communicated openness, motivation, sincerity and love. That made it easy for me to be effective in my presentations.

I understand that, so long as I am open to faith, God uses me - in some small way - every day. But, the remarkable privilege of being the conduit for God's grace and blessing in a retreat/conference setting is both heady and humbling at the same time! I'm overwhelmed; I'm excited; I'm proud; I'm full of God's spirit; I'm full of myself; I'm motivated; I'm exhausted... and so much more.

It's quite possible that God may continue to use me to encourage the work of the Disciples of Christ - maybe even beyond the scope of Virginia. All I can say is - "Bring it on, God! I'm more than willing"....

Photo, below, by the lakeside, early Sunday morning at Smith Mountain Lake