mug ...CAKE?

Dear Elizabeth, I hope this finds you sanitized. In the midst of all that is going on, I have been reading a lot of scripture, I’ll use them a lot in this letter plus I also rediscovered my love for cooking and more so baking. One of my favorite things to bake is a mug cake, yes, it counts. I really loove cake so that is part of the reason but major points go to the fact that I can make this in literally 5 minutes. It’s fast and easy. I like the fact that I can pour in a random mix of ingredients and stir it in a cup and in 2 minutes I have cake. The simplicity and minimal commitment is appealing. Like in many everyday activities, I wondered if this applies to me in more ways than just baking. That’s what everyone else does right? Compare normal day to day activities with the complexities of life….bet it is. So I did, like I always do.

I discovered that just like the 3 minute quick bake, I want to heal tomorrow from the five year mess of a relationship, I want that job application to email me back within the hour and please Lord let those abs come through on second 23 of this plank. If this was an option, I would be taking it 100. But is it really? I hear the success stories, see the Instagram pictures and I just skip right over to the end product. You see not many people with successful…let’s say beautiful marriages will spend much time telling you about the months they barely spoke to each other and had to go through lots of prayer and counseling, not many absolutely fit people will tell about the nights within their diet that their bodies rejected the healthy food they were switching to, people free from addictions share the multiple relapses or Christians talk about their many ‘vacations off’ Christianity where they allow themselves the “am only human card”. What we see most of the time is – I was this way, now am not.

I for one want to be a musician and I be telling God, “Lord if I just woke up tomorrow knowing how to play the keyboard I promise I won’t tell anybody that it just happened.” Still hasn’t happened but am still open to the idea. I want to be audacious like Paul in the bible who wrote most of the new testament and do many great things for God but I don’t want to openly talk about the touchy subjects in Christianity and most definitely do not want to have to face the opposition that comes with it. I want to watch great success stories, feel inspired, try at it for a while, realize it takes way more work and be like “I tried” and then pray that one day I will also be a success story. For some of us we want to be best friends with our parents like in that sitcom we like but wouldn’t be bothered to spend half an hour with them and really try to understand why they are the way they are. We want to be in a relationship but won’t go on any date with anyone who asks #guilty. I want the cake but don’t bother baking it. I’ll settle for a mug cake. Truth is many of us want the result without the process.

NIV: You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." KJV: "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." Hebrews 10:36,

If there is one thing baking takes, is patience. I like how the word perseverance and patience is used interchangeably because waiting, for some reason, is hard. If you think about it, waiting takes like zero energy. It’s just staying; the dictionary calls it a pause. Waiting allows for us to trust because sometimes while we wait for the outcome it looks as if there is nothing going on, but there is. So begin the process and trust it. We need to know there is no palace without the pit, no salvation without the cross. There is no me being all I am meant to be without going through all I need to go through. But that’s the hope. I am going through. There is no stuck in through. It’s and all the way. Through literally means moving in one side and out of the other side. There is an out where there is a through; an end. It may take a while but it comes, for certain.

What is it you need to do? Is it to heal, to forgive, to get a particular job, to love self, to learn a new skill? Test it against God’s promises and His word cause some of our dreams like to marry Justin Beiber, which is a totally random dream that I certainly never had…are not in God’s plan so shouldn’t be in ours either. Take time with God and He will reveal to us our true desires. He will fill us with the right kind of cake we need to bake and if we allow Him, dispense to us all we need for the work ahead.

Delight yourself also in the Lord,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4

Then trust that it will come to pass and like in baking, take the necessary steps carefully measuring out every necessary ingredient and following through. If the ingredients to healing require some hard conversations, have them in their entirety. Don’t make conclusions that they won’t listen before you even talk to them. Just because you’ve never baked before, doesn’t mean the cake will fail. Mix it all up, everything; the prayers, advice, help from mentors, YouTube tutorials if it’s a skill, school if it’s a career. After all this, put it in the oven and wait. Take it to God in prayer and wait. It could take hours, days, months, even years (not the cake, your situation.. cakes take about max 2 hours, there is no little Suzy waiting for her cake to share with her kids cause she’s now 27.) but the end will come. You will reap fruit, you will heal, you will create content, start a family, learn the language , eat the cake.

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:14

Ps. This is not a blog, it's my letter to you.

Love, Mary:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4kxYvIJVdw