Courtesy Archives - The Colley House

Sister to Sister: This Takes the Cake (…or Pudding).

Posted on May 7, 2018

I was at a meal in another city. The food was being served to the grieving family following a funeral (Yes. we do those in the South), when someone told me that the banana pudding on the dessert table was “the best in the world.” No one has to tell me that twice. So there I was in that line before you could say “that’ll be 50 Weight Watcher points.”

When I finally made it to that bowl of banana pudding that obviously was not your Cool Whip and Vanilla Wafer variety, but really probably was the best in the world, this woman came rushing up behind me, saying in her “outside” voice, “Hurry Fred! She’s gonna’ get it all.” Then she continued, to no one at all, but still in her “outside” voice “There’s got to be two more servings to come from that bowl.”

Now, I have been in some situations in which people were…well, rude, but I believe this one takes the cake (or the pudding, in her case).

This was rude because:

I had just as much right to a spoonful of that banana pudding as she did ( more, really, because I was in front of her in that line.)
Who was going to even enjoy the “best banana pudding in the world” if your blood pressure was going up to 180/92 BEFORE you even ingest the sugar?
Such concern for a serving of pudding when people all around you have just walked away from a newly made grave is something of which I didn’t even know civilized people were capable.
Fred was surely embarrassed. Wouldn’t you be?
It was child-like selfishness and “me-firstness” to the max.

I do not know this person. Perhaps she does not have all of her wits. Perhaps she doesn’t have the food she needs now or maybe she went hungry as a child. I did feel sad for her. But several passages came to my mind…

“Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s well-being” (I Corinthians 10:24).

“Many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first” (Mark 10:31).

“…Forbearing one another in love…” (Ephesians 4:3).

“As you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).

And then there’s this. It’s not exactly, word for word, in the Bible, but I think it applies:

“Whosoever would be chief among you, let her have your serving.”

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Pleas and Thanksgiving

Posted on November 24, 2010

When I was small, my mother taught me to say the magic words: please and thank-you. I still believe in magic and I still believe these two words are the keys that unlock an alabaster box of blessings if we can formulate them with our lips as an accurate expression of our hearts’ sentiments.

Please is, of course, the word that we use to say that we are pleading. A child might use the word in frustration when she realizes she is not going to be granted her wish. She might repeat it over and over with increasing volume to create the effect of desperation in hopes of getting the desired commodity. As children of God, though, we should realize that every time God looks upon us with favor, we are unworthy even of that notice. We must be like the woman who came to Christ in Matthew 15, whose daughter was demon possessed. She, recognizing her totally undone condition, pleaded, “Have mercy on me, O Lord.” Realizing that her life was out of control as she literally fought the demons alone, she said, “Lord, help me.” Then we read her amazing statement about being but a dog under the master’s table and we marvel at her admission that, as a Gentile, she was undeserving of any gift from Jesus. But, in spite of the obstacles between her and the favor she requested, she kept pleading.

Pleading is all I can do before the throne. I am not, in any respect, worthy of even the audience. It’s mercy in the extreme that purchased my communication with the Lord. I am but a dog under the table. Pleas are the tones with which I approach Him, because to suggest that he should approve or prefer my voice based on any merit I could muster is ludicrous. Please–the begging kind of please–is the way I ask of Him. In spite of the obstacles (sin) between me and His favor, I keep pleading.

And when I get the please right, the thank-you comes naturally. I mean, if I really understand the lowly depths from which he lifted me, I cannot but be utterly grateful. It is my understanding of my circumstance without Him, that makes me appreciate my standing with Him. I must realize that of waste, desert and wilderness, God has made a garden, gladness, and melody. And I respond with thanksgiving.

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody (Isa.51:3).