pizza

The Deep Dish into Life. Our Kings Favor over Raging Lion Roars

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Too excited not to write it in gratitude… Oh, the crumbs of my leftover pizza are like the crumbs of my thoughts dropping everywhere… (PS I highly recommend an air fryer for re-crisping pizza!) I am happy to write about how GOD IS GOOD and we savor His Blessings…

Between last week and this week, I had wildly different experiences at concerts, both FABULOUS. Last Friday night 80’s music, I knew every song, and oh fun night of dancing singing along with my friends, plus 1000 others, everyone could record it, no one stopped them. A free-flowing fun… Then tonight was an elegant singer of Broadway fame. Oh fabulous and you could hear a pin drop as we waited on every note… no photos or recordings mind you, no standing nor dancing, a much fancier-dressed crowd. Elegant… ELEGANT!!!

Both concerts fantastic, both in the same venue, and remarkably I had the same seat, pretty much. Both were the cheap seats, but the riches of experience for me IS in this deep dish of experience of life that was and is palpable and palatable. 

And speaking of DEEP DISH, I just finished my airfryer reheated lunch leftovers of a detroit-style deep dish pizza, made excellently and scrumptious. And like the concerts last week and this week, wildly different, it was 2 types of wildly different deep dish pizza at lunch, in contrasting savory flavors. The first pizza like eighties pop with spicy sauce, mini pepperoni and a big eighties’ hair-sized piped-dollop of smooth ricotta cheese. Glad I ate that one first. Then the second deep dish pizza was smooth cheese, mushrooms and arugula with balsamic drizzle, it was ELEGANT pizza… MMMM… So yes from a POP concert then to an ELEGANT concert,  I bracketed that inside my fun perky pizza to elegant taste in pizzas. Yes, it was a life palooza of pizza and performance. 

For friends it was a good girls night out to dance 80’s, and leapt at the really in expensive tickets months ago before it sold out, but contrast, for this Mandy Patinkin concert I thought to go alone right after work, not even knowing if I would go. But nothing impeded me, nothing popped up in interference, so after extra time at the office, traffic zipped there on my way home, and I got a cheap seat (there are no bad seats in that theatre) from the way way back, in my own row practically, just enough solitude to absorb my own pin drop thoughts as I sat there and soaked in the sounds of meticulous life music…   After a fun lunch with the girls from work, and more work work, this was the ELEGANCE of alone time which is never alone, of thanking the Lord for the time, means, venues, the deep dish of life…

The best “LION scripture for March” (and it was LION March weather last night with the crisp cold) – that I can relate our “deep-dish life” experiences to is a Proverb 19:12: “A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass...” and I have to say that God’s favor in our ability to love life and live life is that dew on the grass – gentle and generous... Any favor – any rest – and sweetness of laughter of friends, and blessed aloneness of thought, is that dew on the grass – that deep generous dollop of life – that favor…  AND aren’t we all living in favor for the generosity of our Lord and King? Not material items or trips or pizza – but living IN His mercy and grace – that is our dew blessing on our lives and even on our graves when we step into glory – there is no King’s rage anymore in that sense – there is only dew of LIFE and favor of LOVE. We should savor this all knowing God is in control. “The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.”

Another proverb: “The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper.” – it is with understanding of the blessings of the Lord that we can sit in a deep dish of life and savor dew on the grass of His Blessings…

May you have deep-dish plans to prevail today – may you soak in the dew of the blessings of the King.

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Amen

The Worldliness of Pizza Cheese

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My mind kept returning to the taste I had developed for the pizza that was on its way to my house and mouth… mmmmm…. my kid had asked if I could order for pick up, way home from work, favorite pizza place… I called it in..  I always steal a slice, and yet leftovers are also now amazing heated up in the new air fryer… the cheese melts so good… use one of the paper trays for no clean up… mmmmm… I digress… and digest…

There was no pizza yet, but a phone call, everything OK but not. On the way to the pizza place, new driver kid was pulled over for not changing lanes away from emergency vehicles in the shoulder… it’s an old law but newly enforced, and rats not known to this new driver.. 2 cops with lights on the side, one left to pull my kid over, ugh, the fear of not even knowing why you are being pulled over, a citation comes in the mail later, up to 500 dollars for 1st offenders… and I said, and the pizza guy said, in consolation, to take the incident to court to fight the points and maybe fight the fine…

We will see… I just now read about how these things can turn to good – like a multimillionaire had a car accident once that made him get a job to pay off his brothers car and that lead him to be a media mogul and built his career….  hmmmm – getting ahead of myself….

But the anticipation of the ticket, the harm of the scare, the second guessing of “if I only didn’t crave that pizza I would have been in the other lane…” It’s life..  we second guess… and we get overwhelmed in fear… and oh the tears – I’ve been there… but we need to remember those who have not “been there- done that” – walk in their shoes for a bit…

And as a mom, I’m grateful for being the phone call, the ear to chew, the consoling mom, the “we will do this together, it will be alright” voice… all the while my brain realized that I was back thinking of the pizza… how worldly we are as humans… crazy… me especially… if we’ve “been there done that” – we worry less and move on – we do and we forget others are still having this as a new experience – like I’ve been to potentially scary court scenes twice to beg down tickets – with what I thought was valid concerns – I was more fearful of the increase in insurance etc than the fear of walking into court. God gave me the strength not the bravado…

If we just stay calm and state our case – court – even the pizza guy said that – but for a new thing to happen to a young driver and young person, this is the fear expressed into tears and the lessons to learn….

We have to embrace: “well we will work through it” – rather than “you were wronged” or “they targeted you” – because they might have just put the good fear of God into his driving – this is a lesson for the rules of the road to “get over” – as well as slow down, which was what the officer said, you should have at least slowed down.

Thank you Lord for problems, that’s what the scriptures say. How will you work this “blessing” into something for good? He will – we just need faith to let it melt our fear… Well, depend upon God every day…

Here’s my poem:

Our worldliness of pizza clouded over our day, 

My mom-ness was told to be in play, My kid’s tears I couldn’t wipe away. 

The pizza couldn’t save the day.

The tears, they should be okay, 

Overflowing tears are an outlet in a Healing Way. 

Jesus-dependence wins the day.

Be THANKFUL for tough spots, because they make us DEPEND upon God either Way.

(And the pizza in the air fryer tomorrow will make my tomorrow day)…

Melt our fear and cheese in Your Way.

Amen