A Cook-Off

There have been 1,000s of variations of the classic cooking show "Beat Bobby Flay" and honestly that might not be the original. Now Chopped, Cupcake Wars, Guy's Grocery Games, etc., all feel like their own spinoff of a cooking challenge. The cool part about Beat Bobby Flay is they often equal the playing field by letting the contestant pick their signature dish. Thus, Bobby is at a disadvantage of unfamiliarity while the contestants have a cooking competition naivety. The other competitions bring in this element by obligating odd ingredients or dollar amounts.

I don't think it's the perfect parallel, but naivety has been the biggest enemy to my blog. Obviously, the world events of protests, pandemic, elections, and just overall chaos make our eyes turn left, right, up, and down for support. People are looking around for the right answers like a kindergartner looking for Waldo. I think there has been a lot of latching on to partial truths or things that as my roommate Jack would say "smell like truth." I, as a person, haven't been through all that much. I haven't experienced much diversity of thought before college and I felt like I would be joining the choirs upon choirs of partial truths or just things that answer one question, not all. I write to an audience of adults from college to seniors and I just don't feel any authority being the faith writer.

Sure, I have a pretty strong faith. Sure, I have a talent for writing. Sure, I have good ideas. I'm not sure I trust myself to be a voice of faith, of truth, of light. It wasn't until recently that I have had a mindset shift.

I am 100% right I don't have it in me, well, me alone. What I do have is Christ in me. What I do know as a man of faith is where to turn. What I do know is that I shouldn't be directing people to me or my advice, but God's word and his advice.

"So Will, what am I supposed to do read da whole Bible?"

"Well, I believe you meant da Holy Bible and ideally yes, but I'll give some reminders of Christ's word and strongly encourage you to dive in deeper"

1) We GOTTA "love thy neighbor". Man, we are not good at this. One label, opinion, post, mistake, really has the ability to lock up our hearts. I don't care if you are a Yankees, ultra-conservative, only going to church on Easter, Coke loving Chipotle-goer and you interact with al Red Sox, liberal, Pepsi loving, Qdoba ride or die, so religious it comes off as a sanctimonious person. Love each other. Christ showed us that means listening, that means serving, that means sacrificing. We aren't Christ, we don't see all the good in every person, but I promise you can find some.

I had a conversation with my freshman year roommate Benji. Yes, the one from Colombia who has supplied many funny stories. This time he supplied me with virtuous thoughts. He said his time in a call center this summer allowed for a lot of self-reflection. He wanted to do two things. 1) Get involved more on campus, hopefully, in service of some kind. 2) Be intentional with everyone he meets. He exemplified this as a maintenance man came into his apartment and Benji learned his name, cracked some jokes, and offered food and drink. That is often an easy way we are called to love our neighbor. It also got me thinking: how often am I super intentional with my closer friends/family and how to love them? A worthy topic for reflection.

2) We have to look at ourselves before we judge others. Christ talks about this in a couple of ways. He mentions in the gospels the stake in our eye while we point out the small splinter in someone else's. He also famously interrupts a stoning of an adulterous woman and says the first person without sin cast a stone. So much is made of "instant gratification" culture and how detrimental that might be to the younger generations, but I think equally, if not more detrimental is the instant judgment culture. Posts, news releases, and just general updates entice our brain to judge so easily. We quickly dismiss a person as wrong, misguided, ugly, weird, horrible, and a million other judgments. Many times these judgments are supported by masses on the internet. We have to be introspective and check ourselves.

I personally have really struggled with this. Mine was often rooted in pride and it isn't perfect, but it is so much better. For a while last year, I walked to class without my glasses on because I hated every comparison and judgment I made about people as a reflex. I had to train myself to think "I'm walking past my neighbor, my brother in Christ, my sister in Christ, etc." to change. I still have my judgments, but I'm working on it and I recognize it. Sometimes, all it takes is thinking about Christ going "yo Mr. high and mighty. Just because your tall doesn't mean you look down on people. Maybe, instead, you should try raising them up or shutting up." I like to think Christ has some sass. I think that's just because I respond well to sass.

I honestly didn't come into this blog thinking about writing the "instant judgment culture" but I think it's my biggest takeaway. Honestly, these blogs are a lot for me to process my thoughts. I hope you've enjoyed the journey of this one. Let's not give in to these temptations. Our world changes, so does our faith lives, but so does the devil with his tricks. It's not always clear temptations of pleasure, greed, and power but rather short, hardly recognizable temptations that become so familiar that it becomes normal. Hopefully that's a tasty meal to chew on for a while. God bless you all who still read this.

Look to Christ, Look to Love, Look at yourself, repeat.