“But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
~Colossians 3:8-10
Donald Miller once said, “I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me.” I like that. I like thinking that I am a pancake trying to understand Donald Miller. When I read Donald Miller’s twitter, I FEEL like a pancake trying to understand him… but that’s a different discussion.
I don’t know how Donald Miller likes his pancakes, but he makes a pancake as he sees fit. Maybe with blueberries or chocolate chips or plain or gluten free or this or that. All that matters is that he’s making the pancake exactly how he wants it.
Wouldn’t it be weird if this happened…
Pancake: WHY DID YOU MAKE ME WITH BLUEBERRIES?
Donald: Because I wanted you with blueberries.
Pancake: WHY DIDN’T YOU MAKE ME WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS?
Donald: I didn’t want you to have chocolate chips.
Pancake: CAN YOU WRAP A SAUSAGE IN ME AND DIP ME IN SYRUP?
Donald: Nah, I want you just like this.
Pancake: PEANUT BUTTER?
Donald: You are what I want.
Pancake: I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU RIGHT NOW.
I mean, really. But that’s what I do to God all the time. Why am I so loud? How come I struggle with casual conversation? Why couldn’t I be more gentle? The whole time God is lovingly me putting me on a plate and looking at me with so much love because he dreamed up a plain pancake and then went ahead and made me.
The wonderful thing is that even as a pancake, God invites me to know him. He puts up with my requests for syrup dunking and prettier hair. God allows me to know him, and the more I know him the more I make sense in the grand scheme of the world, because I realize over and over again that I was created by someOne who dreamed me up. God dreamed me up, and he made me, and instead of complaining about the whole thing, I get to ask my Creator to show me how to be used for His purpose, to bring him joy.
There’s a lot about me that’s messed up and that doesn’t reflect my creator. I try to pass off my blueberries for chocolate chips and will scream “I HAVE GLUTEN!” while I taste like a sponge, but God who knows and created me patiently waits for me to tire of the pretending and say “okay, why blueberries?”
It’s important for me to know who I am, because when I can stand confidently on that knowledge, I am able to declare loudly what I am not. I am no longer what I was before I met my Creator. Seeing myself in His eyes makes it harder to carry on living in ways that don’t reflect Him, because I want for people to see Him in my eyes. That is hard to do when I am being who I was before I met God, full of lies and unkind words, impatient and impulsive and angry. None of those words describe God.
an my only prayer is that the more and more I know God, the less and less those words even make sense in relation to me, because they don’t even make sense in relation to the One who created me.
I love the pancake analogy, dear girl! You are created so wonderfully!!! Thanks so much for linking up and I can’t wait until we finally get to hang out again!
thank you for the linkup susannah <3 cannot wait to see you again.
This post is amazing. Not only was the lesson brilliant…but now I really want some pancakes. I’d like to think God made me as a chocolate chip banana one. 🙂
mmmmmm a chocolate chip banana pancake. i’d eat you! haha. <3
I LOVED the pancake analogy (especially the conversation part)! All too often i question who I am and how I was created because I compare myself to other pancakes in the world (sorry for playing off your analogy, but I love it way too much obviously). 🙂 Anyway, thank you for reminding me that God created us with a specific purpose and He created each of us beautifully and uniquely, too. And it’s when we dig deeper in His word and listen to Him that we realize just how beautiful we really are. 🙂
analogies are like ships passing by and you’re invited to jump on and explore the nooks and crannies of it, so i welcome you to piggyback of my analogy!! 🙂 comparison truly destroys our spirit, sense of self and assurance in God’s purpose for us. and what an amazing Creator, who reveals more about ourselves as we gaze more intently at him. <3
i LOVE your analogy… makes me crave pancakes, but that’s another story 🙂
And I love what yo said: “Seeing myself in His eyes makes it harder to carry on living in ways that don’t reflect Him, because I want for people to see Him in my eyes.” So true! We are made to reflect His attributes and show Him more clearly to this world.
Elena
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