Friday, August 9, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Everything comes out all right in the end
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
NYTimes Cooking called it the “only brownie recipe you’ll ever need.” Our friend George came for lunch and I made the brownies. Miles, Jasper, George and I watched the Olympics, ate flounder and green beans almondine and sweet corn. Then we fell on the brownies.
Since we weren’t accompanied by any girls while we watched the Olympics, we changed our chant from “USA! USA! USA!” to “Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys!” We got pretty loud, actually.
I dished out the best brownies that had ever been. Before I added vanilla ice cream, Miles looked at Jasper, and Jasper looked at Miles. “I think I have the most. No, I think I have the most. No, I’m sure you have the most. I think you have the most.” George and I chanted, “Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys!”
I asked the boys when they thought there would be a change of view from what they saw on the outside to what was there for them on the inside? Maybe never? Maybe in just a few years, before the Puberty button gets pushed? There are brownies on the outside, and our eternal spirits on the inside. The last will be first, and the guy who has the biggest brownie will lose it, while the guy who gives his brownie away gains his soul.
I didn’t quite get carried away, and I didn’t pull out a Bible. And the boys didn’t act like they heard me, really, because they were quite preoccupied with eating the best brownies the world has ever seen. Our chants faded away, George had to leave and Miles and Jasper watched the rest of Inside Out. I took a nap and when I got up they were incredibly excited.
They saw the end of the movie and were watching the middle again. “You have to watch with us!” Jasper hollered. “Everything comes out all right in the end!” They had made it through the scary parts while I was sleeping. They had stopped holding their breath and were very happy that Riley was also, at last, very happy too.
Although a different happy from before. Like Krista Morgan says, “Don’t worry, but don’t just be happy.” Much emotional nuance is required to live a reasonable, good life. And that nuance certainly includes negative emotions like anger and sadness. But, Krista says, “Society places pressure on us to always be positive and happy, which is an unrealistic ideal that stigmatizes sadness.”
One sadness, I guess, might be that I don’t have the biggest brownie. But that can morph into joy that you have the biggest one! I am happy for you, even if I might be a little sad for myself.
Boys! Boys! Boys! Boys! All of us are learning together how to be human beings, made by God. One day at a time.
Jesus asked what might be the best rhetorical question of all time:
What profit could there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his own soul?
(Nahum 2, Deuteronomy 32, Matthew 5, Matthew 16)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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