Cook up something new

Adapted from an article the writer wrote for religionandspirituality.com.

After watching the movie Julie and Julia (a movie in which a young writer is inspired to cook through Julia Child's first cookbook in a year), I was inspired to clean my very dusty cookbook shelves and fix something I’d never cooked before.

I found the first cookbook I bought almost 30 years ago when I was dating my husband. The first time I prepared dinner for him, though, I hadn’t bought that cookbook yet, and I’d never cooked before, other than grilling a hamburger.

We were having baked chicken. This seemed easy enough to accomplish without instructions. No one had ever told me, however, that I needed to remove the neck and whatever else was inside the bird. Or which side needed to face up. I baked my chicken—breast side down! You don’t even want to know how I cooked the mashed potatoes!

As you can imagine, I bought a cookbook before I tried making another meal.

Cooking can be an effective metaphor for life. When I first started cooking, everything was new. But it didn’t take long before I was repeating tried and trusty recipes again and again. And as with cooking, in the rest of my life, I’ve had firsts, successes, flops, and mistakes. But I’ve found diligence, patience, and perseverance to be key ingredients for success.

So what can we do when our life seems to be getting stale and isn’t working as efficiently and creatively as it once did? Admittedly, since rounding a new corner in my life, I’ve become restless with a strong feeling that there is more to be accomplished. I know I’m not alone—we all have times in our lives when our daily routines or relationships need a good overhaul. Sometimes it’s helpful to “cook up something new.”

Just as we can welcome opportunities to try new foods or new ways of fixing foods, likewise, we can fearlessly face new possibilities, discoveries, and adventures in our life journey. And with God’s ever-present guidance for help, everything needed to tackle new challenges is right at hand.

Time and again, I’ve found that prayer has helped me to address major life-changes. There have been many instances when my life took unexpected turns. For example, I wanted to have a big family, but we only had one child. So I became an “empty-nester” before most of my friends, and had to think about next steps before I had expected to. Later, I had to resign from a job that I loved, and looking for a new job was not something that I really wanted to do at the time.

So I’ve had lots of practice starting over and leaving my comfort zone. But these experiences have taught me how to prayerfully “stretch” myself to consider new directions and plans. I’ve learned “comfort zones” are self-created and self-imposed. If we stick to these comfortable and reliable pathways, we tend to limit our possibilities and the potential for new experiences. Stretching, on the other hand, is powerful, healing, and transforming.

In the Bible, the literal act of “stretching” often brought healing results. For example, God told Moses to “stretch out thy hand over the sea” and the waters parted. Jesus told a man with a withered hand to “stretch forth thine hand” and his hand was restored as his other.

So, as I’ve been trying to “cook up something new” in my life, I’ve seen that I need to stretch my view of myself from a woman of limited capabilities to the woman of God’s creating, who has unlimited potential and timeless purpose. I can think freshly about what I could do, without buying into disheartening assumptions that there isn’t enough time to start something or reach a new goal.

After all, Mary Baker Eddy was 87 years old when she launched The Christian Science Monitor newspaper. Michelangelo was 71 when he painted the Sistine Chapel. Mozart wrote a symphony when he was only 7. It seems we are never too young or old to achieve something new!

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy wrote that “progress is the law of God.” This law means that we never reach a “final destination.” Our spiritual journeys are always continuing. We will always be learning, growing, exploring, discovering, and accomplishing. The best is always yet to be.

The real, spiritual man has unlimited potential. God never sees us as young or old; He only sees His beloved, complete, perfect creation. I’ve found this fact so comforting as I’ve been working on “cooking up something new” in my own life!

Julia Child once said, “This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook – try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!”

Sounds like good advice for outside of the kitchen, too.

Annette Bridges is a freelance writer who lives on a north Texas ranch with her husband, John. Her columns are published weekly on UPI’s ReligionAndSpirituality.com, Examiner.com and numerous other websites and newspapers. Visit her website and participate in her blog at www.annettebridges.com and send her an email at annettebridges@gmail.com.

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