Reset

It's been a while---my friend Josh Patrick has encouraged me to write a blog post for the first time in something like 7 years! This will be posted soon in his blog "Knowing Jesus Today".

The following is written by my dear friend, Jason Henderson. We share two common passions -- knowing Jesus and food. He is a professional chef who has developed restaurants and menus in more than 25 countries. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and cooks the best burgers I've ever had in my life. What he shares in this post resonated with me. I bet it'll encourage you, too.

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We're only a dozen weeks into 2016, and many of us are already worn out. The stillness of the holidays and the excitement of a New Year have wilted and given way to an endless to-do list, constant kids' activities, the frenetic dinner-time/bath-time/bed-time routine, nagging home projects, work stress, money stress, family stress, and on and on it goes.

Is anybody else tired?

I have one friend who is asking for prayers because he is drowning in the hours he is putting in at work, another is moving and is struggling to balance life and the stress of his home’s upheaval. Another friend, while trying to add new self-improvement routines to his life, discovered a health issue that he now must manage (insurance, doctor visits, medication) ugh! The momentum of life’s stresses builds so easily, so quickly and I find myself already looking toward the next break, the next vacation. Didn’t we just have a major year-end holiday season?

When I was growing up it was the beginning of the computer age as we know it. I could write simple little DOS programs on my family’s VIC 20 and Commodore 64. These were computers in the form of a keyboard that you plugged into a TV. The VIC-20 held less memory than it takes to even display the icon for an app on today’s mobile devices (about 21 kb). It was enough to spend hours plugging away at some simple programming to create an animated image of a skiing man, drawn with alpha-numeric characters, who would ski down my TV screen – a modern marvel!

The one thing I remember about all of these new computers was that they inevitably would become bogged down due to the lack of memory. There would be two commands that couldn’t execute together or a spinning black and white wheel instead of a mouse pointer that meant “this computer will never stop thinking." Frustrating! These error indications meant the executing of commands, of keeping up with the demands put upon the machine was too much. The poor small-minded computer was overwhelmed and frozen. Fortunately, there was one trick that always got you out of these  infinite error cycles -- Ctrl+Alt+Del! Clack, click, clack, beep!

Today those three keys do not have quite the same effect as they once did. Today it will bring up a list of choices or programs and you can choose what you want to do from another menu. In the world of early computing it was a triumphant method of escape. When the machine was overwhelmed, Ctrl+Alt+Del was there.

I somehow still have a Pavlovian feeling of relief just remembering the sound; Clack, click, clack, beep and then a beautiful fresh start. No more error sounds, no more hot headed frustrations of not being in control of the dumb computer. Just a pause, a breath, and then the computer would slowly start back up as if it were working fine all along. You may have lost some work but that was part of computer-life back then. You were just happy to be back in control.

We just finished a teaching series at our church called Reset. The logo for the series at church had a sideways power button in place of one of the “e”s. In our busy world we find that kind of control appealing. Just power down and stop the madness. I think it is something similar that is so appealing about Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in Matthew 22. The Pharisees were experts in the law and the prophets. These are guys that in addition to the stresses of their day-jobs and family life would memorize and become experts on the Torah and its 613 commandments. Amazingly, they would commit all of them to memory and be able to answer life’s questions in light of them and pass them along to their families. They wore them (literally) on their bodies and hung them in front of their eyes where they could continue to study them.

I don’t know about you but if anyone came to me, today, with all that I have going on and said “by the way, we’re going to need you to memorize and and obey this list of 613 things” my head might just explode. I don’t believe it was any easier back then which is probably why a young “know-it-all” like Jesus would be the target of many “okay then, tell me this if you’re so smart” type moments.

Imagine yourself overwhelmed with life’s worries and balancing family life and being a provider and imagine you are an expert on the law. You know exactly what to do and not to do and why. Now imagine this young revolutionary Jesus starts taking control of the spotlight. All the stress and time and work you put in and this guy is getting the credit as an expert?!? And then he says it. The crowd has gathered and your best friends have confronted him. They have him right where they want him, this is the moment you have waited for, you and your hard working, learned comrades will take back the expert role you have worked so hard for. “Teacher” they ask him “which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Yes! Now you have him. Out of 613 commands who would ever be able to answer this?

“’You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind… and equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Clack, click, clack, beep!

That sound would not actually be heard for another 1900+ years but I think the impact was just as good. All the stress and memorization, all the rushing around and performing and image-managing, all the works and all the strife, faded behind this single statement. When you love God with all you have the rest will take care of itself. I think for at least some of those Pharisees there was calm that day. I bet at least a few found themselves, eyes locked with Jesus, in the calm eye of the storm.

Does your life need a reset?

Do you long for this? Does the thought of a Ctrl+Alt+Del to life appeal to you? If it does, you are in luck. If you are already desperate for the next vacation... if you are looking for the eye in your storm... take in these words and believe them: Jesus said “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Middle East Observation

As I traveled a couple of weeks ago to the Arabian world in the gulf I gave notice to the threads of Islam that are weaved so noticeably through the communities and infrastructure there. As you walk through the shopping malls, airports and hotels of Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and the like; you will most surely come across prayer rooms and washrooms for prayer. Most public buildings are equipped this way, and at minimum have signs indoors showing the correct direction for prayer.

I visited the new Islamic Art Museum in Doha I was struck at the use of patterns in the Islamic art that show the philosophy of the infinite in everything. I was impressed by the use of Arabic calligraphy (usually repeating a line from the Quran or a declaration of a one-and-only god) on dinnerware, rugs, tapestries and jewelry. It seems no matter where in the world or when in time the culture travels its faith is significant if not center.

Their food and dress follow the tradition of their holy rules and their laws echo the same. Their skyline is dotted with mosques and their weeks and days are punctuated into a regular rhythm by prayer.

There may be a tendency for westerners to shake their heads at the legalism. One may wonder “Why can’t they lighten up?” “Why all the rules?”

Admittedly I am a Christ-follower with a very different world-view from the majority in the Arab world. Though I have found myself asking some of the questions posed above and maybe I have shaken my head at some of the legalism of that culture I cannot help but be impressed too. I am impressed and maybe even a bit wanting of the consistency present. The entire Arab and Muslim world do not share the Islamic religion and its customs but they respect it and its presence in their lives. One does not have to share the Islamic values to appreciate a culture that integrates its moral beliefs into consistent reminders throughout their day-to-day.

As a Christ-following American I do crave this consistency. Oh to have a public system of daily and constant reminders of the faith system that built our country. To have popular public art that sought to glorify God rather than spit at Him. Oh to have a public desire to hold sacred the God that led our fore fathers to this land. To have our youth taught to honor our Christian history (even if they don’t worship it) rather than scrub the Christianity from it.

Winding up again, with Cabrito!

As a fellow chef in Canada I know would say; I have been “nose-down, tail up” busy, but I had a great experience a couple of nights ago here in Monterrey, Mexico that I had to take a moment and blog about.

My colleague and Mexican country manager Jaime took me to Restaurant Gran San Carlos. The specialty of the house? Cabrito or roasted baby goat. This is the specialty of Monterrey and the surrounding state of Nuevo Leon. At Restaurant Gran San Carlos they serve it al Pastor which is a method where the whole carcass is opened flat and impaled on a spit. The spit is then placed next to a bed of coals and roasted slowly. No seasoning is used other than the light scent it absorbs from the charcoal.

The meat from all areas of the goat is then served with tortillas, lime and salt as well as a homemade salsa made with the extremely spicy chili piquenos. We had offal wrapped in intestine then some of the leg and finally the equivalent of goat "ox tail" with some of the rear ribs attached. I was stuffed and very satisfied. We paired the cabrito with an Argentinean Malbec; not bad.

Below are some shots of the Cabrito and the chilies used in the salsa.

Colborne Lane Hors D'Oeuvres List

foie gras + huckleberry + confit lemon + grand marnier jelly
rainbow trout + asparagus + sour cream + purple sorrel
calamari + caramelized peanut + asian pear + mango
beef crudo + black olive + smoked cheddar + puffed mushroom noodle
fromage frais + lemon curd + lemon pearls + blueberry
iced coffee bombs