Not Quite Fully

My culinary adventures continue, somewhat side-railed this summer by the vast amounts of fresh cold watermelon we have been consuming.

Last week one of my daughters was visiting for the day.  Whenever we are together and time has allowed, our motto has always been, "Let's make something," which was quickly amended that day by "Let's make something with chocolate chips."  As she had a large amount of work to accomplish, the actual making fell to me.

On the Ghirardelli chocolate website, I found a recipe for chocolate truffle cookies.  I had all the ingredients in the pantry, except for the Ghirardelli 60 percent cacao chips that the recipe called for.  I had a bag of Hershey dark chocolate chips instead..

"Oh, those will do."  That comment should have sent up red flags waving.  That is where we trip up in our obeying.  I have often said, "Satan's greatest deceit is always 'It won't matter.'"

I followed the recipe carefully, knowing very well that my daughter -- the appointed family BAKER-- was in the next room.  I measured precisely, stirred rigorously, and baked them to the minute.  But even as they emerged from the hot oven, I could tell something was wrong.  "These don't look like the picture in the recipe," I said.  Instead of puffy morsels with a crackling across the top, my cookies were flat and appeared to have just melted onto the parchment paper.  They just weren't the same.

And so in our lives.  Obedience to God is not an adherence to a set of rules, it is an attitude. It is trusting Him all the way.  It is realizing that God knows what He is doing.  And when I question Him -- or insert my own ingredients into the mix -- well, the outcome is never quite the same.  There is a reason for it, whether I understand it at the time or not. 

What went wrong?  It was not a matter of following a formula, but following Him.

Has the LORD as great delight
    in burnt offerentings and sacrifices,
    as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold,
            to obey is better than sacrifice,
      and to hearken than the fat of rams.

                       1 Samuel 15.22