FOOD
FOR THOUGHT
(05/04/2008)
POP
A BROC
Cindy Hong
Kimchi
is my nephew Landon's favorite vegetable. If he had it his way, it would
be the only vegetable he eats. But his mom and dad know that their 4 year
old cannot live on kimchi alone. So instead, they use kimchi as a reward
for a meal well-eaten. A typical dinner for Landon is chicken with rice.
Mixed throughout are small bits of broccoli with hopes that a spoonful
of food will consist of all three items. But Landon just eats the rice
and chicken, conveniently pushing the broccoli to the edge of the plate.
Toward the middle of the meal his mom starts saying, “Okay Landon, time
to pop a broc!” Before the meal ends, we'll have heard this phrase repeated
several times over. “Pop a broc!” “Okay, let's pop another broc!”
To get the brocs popping faster, the mom will reach for the kimchi jar
in the fridge and start washing off some of the spices for him. He knows
that once the brocs are gone, the kimchi is his.
Eating
broccoli is tantamount to suffering for this 4 year old. Landon would
like nothing more than to stick his nose into a bowl of kimchi and inhale
its pungent aroma. But in order to savor the kimchi, he needs to pop his
brocs first. For most of us, our lives are filled with the stuff that
God has put on our plates: work to do, bills to pay, classes to pass,
dishes to cook, kids to raise. Duty is mixed with delight, work mingled
with play, unfairness showered with God's unexpected grace, unfulfilled
childhood dreams replaced with a kingdom purpose, hard times permeated
with God's mercy. Life is filled with both broccoli and kimchi. Jesus
popped his share of brocs and busted his chops on the cross. But thankfully,
life with him isn't just about what we got to do but what we
get to do. We get to eat broccoli, we get to praise God in our own little
way, we get to eat sumptuously at his table, we get to see God at work,
we get to be God's children. So no matter what's on our plates, broccoli
or kimchi or something else, may we see them as stuff we get to eat rather
than what we have to eat, trusting that somehow God can use all things
for His glory and for our good.
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