Banana Bread Day (09/02/2024)

We rarely eat all our bananas before the peel gets all brown and spotted and the inside gets soft. When this happens, I toss the banana in the freezer. When I have time and enough bananas, I make banana bread. Recently, I realized I had not baked in some time; my freezer was ½ full of frozen bananas. So, yesterday I baked banana bread – 8 batches of it. I ended up with 8 large loaves and 10 small loaves which I will put in the freezer and take out as we need them or want them. But, as I sat down at the end of the day, I promised myself I wouldn’t let the bananas pile up that way again. More isn’t always better.

Truly, more isn’t always better. We know that from life if we’re paying attention. We know that from scripture. Jesus was clear that “having” wasn’t the criteria for salvation; the criteria for salvation rested instead on “being.” Put another way, as the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31) reminds us, wealth doesn’t get us to heaven, nor does it bar our way to heaven and life in abundance with our LORD. Rather, who we are and how we conduct ourselves, that is how we get there.

The “who we are” piece focuses on our rightful and humble acknowledgment of our relationship with our LORD and our dependence upon the LORD for grace, for guidance, for salvation itself. I don’t know about you, but at times, I have found my attention to this essential relationship as wanting as my attention to the accumulation of bananas in my freezer. That was the other thing I realized yesterday. I need to pay more attention to not just my freezer but to my whole life and my direction and focus in this life. Turns out that sometimes more is better.

I often wonder if life gets away from others as it sometimes does with me. I wonder if others struggle to keep up with both the physical world and its demands as well as the spiritual. I wonder if others feel the LORD’s “thump” as a major realization becomes crystal clear. I wonder a lot.

At the end of the day yesterday, I had enough banana bread for a village. But I also had a realization that I need to pay more attention to not just the physical but the spiritual dimensions of my journey. The last couple of months have been a struggle spiritually. As I sat with my counter full of banana bread, I told myself, “You should have just taken the time earlier.” And as I sat with the LORD reflecting on the struggle of my spiritual journey, I realized the answer the LORD was pointing me to was the same – just take the time! Just do it because without it, who am I? Without it, how will I make this journey? Without the time with the LORD, how will I ever become me, the one the LORD created me to be, the one who is all the LORD wills.

And so last evening, before bed, I promised again to the LORD that I give Him all I am. I will bring all I am to Him and seek His transformative love and the graces necessary for the journey. I promised to remember always and everywhere that He is with me even in those moments when I struggle to find Him. I promised the LORD more because I recognize that the LORD is the LORD of abundance.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.