I Buy It Already Chopped

Everything in that kitchen arrived in pieces.

The onions come diced. The peppers come sliced. The garlic is in a jar. There are bags of things that somebody else already cut, and they cost more, and you have never once minded paying it.

And to anybody watching, that is convenience. It is what a busy person does. Nobody has ever looked at that cart and thought anything at all.

But you know what each of those items is. Each one is a decision, made in a store, quietly, to keep one thing out of your hands for another week.

It has been going on for years. You could not say when it started. And the strange part is how invisible it is: a whole life arranged around a single object, in plain sight, and nobody has noticed because the arrangement looks exactly like being sensible.

So let me say the first thing plainly, before anything practical.

This is a real fear and nothing here is going to treat it as silly.

A blade is genuinely dangerous, and a man who is wary of one is not defective. Nothing in this article is going to tell you to grow up about it, and nothing here will pretend the workaround has been stupid, because the workaround has been intelligent and it has worked for a long time.

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not

There is a line in Deuteronomy spoken to somebody about to do a thing he has been avoiding, and the middle of it is the part that matters.

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. (Deuteronomy 31:6, King James Version)

He it is that doth go with thee.

Not: he will meet you when you get there. Not: he approves of the plan. He goes with, in motion, alongside, which is a different kind of accompaniment from a blessing issued in advance.

And that matters for a man standing at a drawer, because the going is the part that has been missing. Nobody has ever suggested there would be company in it.

You are being gone with rather than sent, and a thing you have arranged your life around has never once been a thing you were expected to face by yourself. Deuteronomy 31:6 puts God in the motion rather than at the destination, and the Holy Spirit is the one present with a man who has been buying it already cut for years.

And notice the phrase be strong and of a good courage comes before fear not.

The order is worth having. Courage is named first and is treated as something a person can be handed, and the not fearing follows from the company rather than from a decision to feel differently.

Nobody in that verse manages their emotions. Somebody goes with them.

You have company rather than an instruction to feel braver, and courage handed to a person has never once been the same thing as courage summoned by one. The Spirit of God is the one with somebody who has been doing this alone in a store, and Deuteronomy 31:6 grounds the fear not in who is going along.

The workaround costs more than money

Here is the practical half, and it is one correction. The arrangement works, and it has a price that does not show up at the register.

The obvious cost is that everything is more expensive, and that is real and it is also the least of it.

The actual cost is that the fear has never been tested and therefore has never been able to get smaller. A fear that is never met does not fade, it consolidates, because every avoided encounter is quietly logged as further evidence that avoiding was correct.

So the thing has grown, slowly, for years, without a single incident feeding it. That is what avoidance does. It is the only fear maintenance system that runs entirely on nothing happening.

You were feeding it with absence rather than with incidents, and a fear that never got met has never once had the chance to get smaller. Deuteronomy 31:6 sends nobody anywhere alone and never asks anybody to feel different first, and the Holy Spirit is the one with a man whose fear has been growing on an empty diet.

And here is the second half, which is the instruction, and it is deliberately not ambitious. The answer to this is not to stop buying things already chopped. Keep every one of those bags. Nobody is asking you to dismantle a system that works.

The answer is one thing, once, tonight, in addition to all of it. A single cut changes what the fear has been living on, and it does not require any part of the arrangement to end.

You have one cut available tonight without dismantling anything, and adding one act has never once been the same thing as giving up a system. The Spirit of God is the one in that kitchen with a man about to do one thing he has not done in years, and Deuteronomy 31:6 puts the strength before the going rather than after it.

What tonight is, with that knife

So here is the assignment, and it is deliberately small. Pick up the knife tonight, cut one thing slowly, and put it away.

Tonight. One thing. One cut is enough, and it can be the easiest thing in that kitchen. Put the board flat, put the thing on it, hold it with the other hand well back, and go slowly enough that your attention stays on your fingers the whole time. Do not chop, and do not try to do it the way it is done by people who do it all day.

It may be uncomfortable. That is expected, and discomfort is not danger, and you are allowed to feel all of it while your hands do the thing anyway.

You are doing one thing in addition rather than instead, and one slow cut has never once required a man to change how he shops. Deuteronomy 31:6 puts somebody alongside rather than waiting at the end, and the Holy Spirit is the one at that board with a man holding the big one for the first time in years.

Then the second half, which is the one that does the work. Put it away yourself. Wash it, dry it, and return it to the drawer, which means your hand goes to that handle a second time when there is nothing to cut and no reason to be holding it. The first time is a task. The second time is a choice, and the choice is the half that changes what gets logged.

You are logging something different tonight, and a knife picked up a second time on purpose has never once been the same event as one used and abandoned. The Spirit of God is the one at that drawer with a clean knife going back in, and Deuteronomy 31:6 says he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.