Cookies and the Kingdom

Lately I have been looking for something “big” to do for the Kingdom of Heaven; but the task that keeps falling into my lap is making cookies.

God has a sense of humor. All you have to do is say “I will go anywhere but here,” or “I will do anything but this,” and often that is the very place or the very task God will send you or give you. The wonderful thing about God is, though, that His plans are always best. I once said I did not want to go to UNM, because I didn't want to live in Albuquerque. I diligently searched for other schools and fervently hoped I'd get to go to one of them; but in the end, God sent me to UNM, and I had an amazing undergrad experience. I have no regrets about going there, and I even learned there are some very likeable things about Albuquerque. :-)

But lately I have had to smile over something else that happened-- smile because once again God moved in a way I didn't expect, but at the same time He taught me something very valuable. Back in college a friend's mother sent him back to school after a weekend at home with some amazing tasting cookies. I asked if he could get a copy of the recipe for me. I made a few modifications myself, and ended up by accident with a wonderful chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Shortly after I started looking for my “big” thing all these opportunities to make cookies started coming up. My husband asked me if I could make some to share at work, and then there was a request to send cookies on the youth group retreat, and then I brought them another week for snack at youth group, and then my husband had another work event; I even had the opportunity to bring some to my work.

When all the requests for cookies started coming in, I actually kind of resented it, because I felt it was taking my already precious time away from doing my as-yet-undiscovered “big” thing. But the opportunities kept coming, and slowly God changed my perspective. My husband's co-workers loved the cookies. The youth group was overjoyed to have them on their long drive to their retreat. And the day I brought them into work happened to be a day one of the cooks was having a particularly bad time... the cookies made his day a little better. I brought enough for the swing shift to sample and also the graveyard shift. I have received requests to bring them again.

It doesn't feel like much. But maybe it's more than I realize. If God can use cookies to bless the people around me, isn't that worth it? In the end, what really matters is being faithful to what God has called me to do. I asked him for something big to do for His kingdom. He said bake cookies. And more cookies. :-) What I have learned is to rejoice that I have something I can do, instead of repining because it isn't bigger or more important. God has been teaching me a lesson through all this-- a lesson in being faithful toward the little things as well as the big, and having a willing heart to do whatever God asks, even if it isn't always what I had planned.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” -Ecclesiastes 9:10

“Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” -Colossians 3:17

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, rather than for men... it is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” -Colossians 3:23-24