Week 99: Calm Before the Chaos
You never know what the day will bring…
Each Sunday, my wife and I cook and eat a meal together — intentionally. Every Friday, I’ll be sharing our experience here in this space. I want to see the growth that will come in our marriage because of this. I hope you enjoy our story. You can find last week’s post here.
Our culture can be exhausting sometimes, right? On the one hand, you have the constant stream of information that is bombarding our senses at every moment. On the other, there seems to be this feeling that we always have to be on. We always have to be moving or hustling. There’s something to be said for working hard, and maybe I’m overstating things. But I often feel pressure to do more.
In that same vein, I haven’t always felt like I’ve been the best at starting my day. I’m not a morning person at all. I have a few routines that I do every morning, but I sometimes feel a sense that my mornings aren’t as productive as they could be. One routine I do have each morning is to spend some time in prayer and reflection. In those moments, I’m reminded every day that sometimes things that don’t “look” productive are the most productive things I can do. Because I find myself in those reflective moments coming to the realization that I don’t know what the day will bring but that my God does. It’s a belief I hold, and one that is a constant comfort to me. This Sunday, Sarah and I once again learned some valuable lessons through cooking. Though we didn’t know what all would happen during the day, we went through it together. That made all the difference.
Easy Like Sunday Morning
“Easy” by The Commodores is one of those songs that I will always enjoy no matter how many times I hear it. It’s simply a great song. One reason I love it so much is that it’s a nice metaphor. Throughout my life, Sunday mornings have always been about church. But even though that sometimes made for busy mornings, there’s always been a comfort in Sunday morning for me. After going to church on this particular Sunday morning, we felt refreshed and ready to make some brunch. We decided on breakfast burritos, and off we went.
We had some of the ingredients, but I made a quick trip to the store for the rest of what we needed. I got home, and we went about our preparations with one very special added step.
One of Sarah’s favorite Christmas presents came from her parents this year. Sarah is a huge fan of Ayesha Curry, and her parents got her a set of Ayesha Curry cookware. Sarah was giddy as we opened up the boxes to use the pans for the first time.
Sarah prepped the ingredients, then we started cooking. To give us more space, we were each cooking our two burritos in separate skillets. After letting them cook a little while, the moment of truth had finally arrived.
Time to flip.
The Spilled Interiors
We got one of them to turn out okay, but the others opened up at the sides and began spilling their insides out onto the skillet. No, it wasn’t ideal. We both began to hurriedly attempt to salvage the broken burritos. But, in the end, we realized that it wasn’t the end of the world. We let them finish cooking, then we scooped out the remains onto our plate. We ate together, and I don’t think we gave a second thought to the look of the burritos once we tasted them.
I know some of my cooking metaphors get a little strained at times, but bear with me on this one. I spend so much of my time worrying about whether or not I’m falling behind or whether I’ve missed an opportunity to step towards my calling. I wonder if I’m not hustling enough, while at the same time lamenting the high levels of clutter and stress that tend to build up around me. This week’s cooking adventure was a reminder to me.
Sometimes life looks like chaos when it’s really something else. Something beautiful. It’s on us to look past the chaos to the beauty at the heart of it. I see that beauty every time I look at my wife’s face. And her smile as we ate our burritos and watched Netflix together was everything I needed in that moment and the ones that followed. I encourage you to look for those moments in your life. They may just come when chaos threatens to steal your focus.
Don’t let it.
