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I am the Mustard of Life, 30Aug

Mustard, it saved me yesterday. Awesome to get to the amusement park with my son for his birthday, a friend gave us free day passes, we gave up season passes this year because my kids are old for this tiny kid park, but it’s always fun for us big kids too.

Spinning rides, I can’t do them anymore, a bell went off when I hit a certain age, and my system just can’t…. He wanted to ride all the new rides, he directed the day, he was in charge of where we went in the park, he beamed with pride… He is a good soul and so thoughtful, but needed me and wanted me by his side on those spinning rides, how could I disappoint… I did ok, but not good…. Fun yes but spinning… Pray Jesus to come into the spinning teacup like that boat on the Galilee, nope Jesus was already there, spinning too… My head kept spinning, the ride was done, still spinning… How could I let this ruin the fun day planned? That stressed me out… How could I recover…

Mustard… Mustard saved me (that and sitting still for five minutes)… I could finally stand and walk again… my son wanted popcorn and me too, I wanted food, but I had left my packed healthy lunch in the car… I was hungry, stress hungry, not real hunger… Mustard…. Free packets at the end of the counter, free in this charge you “an arm and a leg” for just popcorn kinda place. My head and stomach said food as your addiction of choice for stress relief, but my eyes are open now and I KNEW this was all stress, I had breakfast and in the past I have fasted with no problem on many days, this was STRESS…. Spinning stress… Jesus holding but not fixing what I desired as a quick fix… Mustard, I have used this awesome spice when I started changing my eating habits, I crave salty, spicy, and wow flavors… mustard, horseradish, vinegar, shock your system kinda spice…. Snap, the second the mustard hit my mouth I was cured…WOW… My brain and body snapped back to the scene of a happy day… A peaceful oasis of me returned within thousands of screaming kids, scrambling grandparents… and parents getting the most bang out of their buck, being big kids…. that’s the fun in this park, we are free to be little and rambunctious again….
Mustard, mmm…. It zapped me like one of those automatic defibrillators… I could continue, onto the water rides, day saved… Son happy…

Jesus, I should not have expected you to fix my spinning stress, I inflicted it myself and I certainly didn’t detach from you… I was balancing life this day (actually every day)…. The body has limits you know, but our free will doesn’t… and free will puts us at dangerous spots… Inflicting both injury and inappropriate quick fixes if our boundary lines are left in the dust and we go too far… Confuses our focus, spins our heads…

Can we control our free will? We have to! Test it sure, I got thru the rides, happy boy to have mom by his side… But sanity prevailed and limited the actions that would have thrown me over the edge… Mustard snapped me back, I focused on moving forward… I shouldn’t have had to use it, but it substituted with a spicy kick… It’s not a bad thing, and I was grateful, it’s just mustard… it’s good to find safe ways to get yourself into gear… better to find safe ones than risky ones… And I mean this for not just amusement rides, I mean this for big people problems… If you put yourself at risk, you may not see the best way back to the path…

Thus the connection of mustard to Jesus… Snapping back into reality, into the feeling of peace, or at the minimum finding the will to move forward, to move on…. All these are necessary when you stray… All these are things to reposition your mind, and to focus on the necessary… Jesus could be the spicy mustard you need, “I am the mustard of life”…. Jesus could shine a light into your stress or even your shame or even your vain… whether minute or major; He could be there for you because actually HE never left… He carries you, heavy burdens and all, perhaps if you shed some of those burdens the trek will be easier… Perhaps you will even go so far as to find internal joy, true joy…

Spinning heads or not, Jesus is along for the ride. If you are happy, HE is there; if you are sad, HE is there. If you are in the pits, HE has an amazing light source to shine you out… He didn’t judge, he doesn’t judge, but he wants YOU along for HIS ride… So DON’T give up on HIM, HE isn’t giving up on YOU, EVER!