Waiting Until I Have The Right Things

There is a list.

It is not written down anywhere, but you could recite it. The heavy pan. The knife that people say changes everything. The board that is the right size. Two or three other items that keep appearing in the same conversations.

And the plan has always been that once those are in that kitchen, you will start.

It is a reasonable plan. Anybody would nod at it. You cannot do a job without the tools, and nobody thinks less of a person for wanting to begin properly rather than badly.

But the list has been the plan for about six years now.

And in that time you have had the money for at least two of the things, more than once, and the money went somewhere else, which is what money does. And the list stayed, intact and reasonable and untouched, and so did the not cooking.

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

Nothing in this article is going to suggest you buy any of it.

Not a cheaper version. Not a starter version. Not one item to get going with. The whole of what follows happens with the pan that is already in that kitchen, because the list is not a shopping problem and buying the list would not solve it.

Accepted according to that a man hath

There is a line in Second Corinthians about giving, and the principle inside it reaches a great deal further than money.

For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. (2 Corinthians 8:12, King James Version)

According to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

Read the second half twice. Not according to that he hath not. Whatever is missing is explicitly removed from the reckoning. It is not counted, not weighed, not held against anybody, not even mentioned again.

And the first half sets the condition, and the condition is small: if there be first a willing mind. Not a stocked kitchen. Willingness.

You are reckoned by what is in that kitchen rather than by what is not, and a list of things you do not own has never once been counted against you. Second Corinthians 8:12 removes what a person lacks from the accounting entirely, and the Holy Spirit is the one present with a woman who has been keeping a list for six years.

And notice the word accepted.

It is not tolerated. It is not a lesser version graciously allowed. Accepted, which is a word about something being received as sufficient, and it is said about the offering of somebody who plainly did not have much.

That is a pan that is already in your cupboard. It is accepted. It was never the problem.

You have something already accepted rather than something provisional, and a pan somebody would not have recommended has never once made the meal in it less real. The Spirit of God is the one with somebody who has been apologizing for her own cupboard, and Second Corinthians 8:12 calls the offering of the one with little accepted rather than excused.

The list is not a plan, it is a place to keep the decision

Here is the practical half, and it is one correction. A list like that is not preparation. It is a place to put a decision so that the decision does not have to be made.

Watch how it works. While the list is unbought, nothing is required of you tonight, and the not cooking is not avoidance, it is sequencing. The list makes every single evening reasonable, one evening at a time, for six years.

And here is the test, and it is uncomfortable. If all of it arrived tomorrow, boxed, on the counter, what would happen on the first evening?

You would have a very good pan and exactly the same open question about what to do with an onion. And within a week there would be a new item on a new list, because the list was never about equipment.

You were sequencing rather than preparing, and a list that makes every evening reasonable has never once produced an evening. Second Corinthians 8:12 puts the whole weight on a willing mind rather than on what somebody owns, and the Holy Spirit is the one with a woman who has been postponing on very good grounds.

And here is the thing worth knowing about the pan you already have.

It heats. That is the entire requirement. A heavy pan holds temperature better and a good knife cuts more cleanly, and both of those matter to somebody making a great deal of food quickly for other people. Neither of them matters at all to one person making eggs.

The difference between your pan and the pan on the list is invisible in everything you would actually cook this year.

You have the only thing this needs, which is a pan that gets hot, and better equipment has never once been what decided whether somebody could feed themselves. The Spirit of God is the one in that kitchen with a cupboard nobody would photograph, and Second Corinthians 8:12 accepts what a person has and dismisses what they have not.

What tonight is, with what is in that cupboard

So here is the assignment. Cook one thing tonight with the pan you already own, and eat it sitting down.

Tonight. One thing. Keep it plain: eggs with something in them. Rice with an egg on it. Pasta with butter and cheese and a lot of pepper. Do not go out and get anything, not one item off the list and not a cheaper stand in for one, and use what is already in that kitchen.

It may not be good. That is expected, and it is information about a first attempt rather than about the pan, and it is certainly not an argument for the list.

You are cooking with what is accepted rather than with what is aspired to, and a first meal in an ordinary pan has never once owed anybody a better result. Second Corinthians 8:12 counts what a person has and nothing else, and the Holy Spirit is the one at that stove with a pan that was in the cupboard all along.

Then the second half, which is the one that does the work. Eat it sitting down, at a table, on a plate, not standing at the counter. Sitting down is what turns an act into an event that happened, and this is the first evening in six years that did not wait on a list, and it is going to be marked.

You are marking an evening that cost nothing, and a meal that needed no list has never once counted for less than one that did. The Spirit of God is the one at that table with a plate and a pan in the sink, and Second Corinthians 8:12 sets acceptance on the willing mind rather than the inventory.