{Written By Guest Writer Eric Croft}
Chocolate chip.
Sometimes oatmeal raisin, but mostly chocolate chip.
Any time and all the time cookies were on my mind. My favorites were from Subway, but I never complained about any of them. The taste of each circle of heaven in my mouth was enticing enough to always bring me to ask for another. Actually, a cookie right now seems pretty good.
Typically, I am a healthy eater. I fast from desserts about 7 months a year for track season and I know that if I have one doughnut, before I know it I will be missing a dozen. Even though I have a huge sweet tooth, it usually is best to not even start eating and just let my hunger for sweets suffer.
This summer was different, though. I said yes to cookies. Whenever I was offered one (and even more so when I wasn’t!) I would accept the invitation to allow my mouth and stomach to enjoy this sugary pleasure without allowing my mind to worry. And I feel I am a better person for it. Not because they made me healthier, on the contrary I’m pretty sure I put on a couple of pounds. I am a better person because I said yes to something I would usually say no to.
And I survived.
I spent this summer serving with Bigstuf ministries, a camp in Panama City Beach for middle and high school students that focuses on presenting them with truth about life with Christ and showing them that this truth is fun. This theme of saying ‘yes’ was actually reoccurring in many ways throughout my summer. I said yes to staying up later than normal. I said yes to living in the moment. I said yes to not being serious so often. I said yes to seeing where I needed God to work in me. I said yes to being crazy in front of people I do not know. I said yes to opening up to people I met only weeks ago. I said yes to understanding that I am the rich person that those stricken with poverty see. I said yes to giving grace. I said yes to accepting grace. I said yes to loving others. I said yes to living like I am worth loving.
I said yes to cookies.
Don’t let me fool you. None of this was preplanned, nor did I intend to eat a small child’s weight in cookies. It is amazing how the Spirit of God works, isn’t it? I ask Him to stretch me and He tells me to eat cookies. If you don’t think God has a sense of humor, you should read that sentence again. All I did was ask God to to grow me, stretch me and use me. He was the one who placed me in each situation, gave me each opportunity and placed each “cookie” on my plate. All I had to do was say yes. Thankfully I did this time, but how often do we say no? How many times does God come to you and say, “Yes, I hear you, just follow me and we will walk there together,” and we tell God that His way is wrong. It is too risky. I am not that confident. I do not have the skills to do that. I know someone else who would fit that role better. How often do we look back into the face of God and say, “God, I cannot see the end, so how can this be part of your plan? I don’t understand, so I am going to hang back here, sit with the pieces of this journey that I already understand and hope that another opportunity will pop up”?
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11:1, ESV)
Where is faith without uncertainty? That’s right, there is none. Adventure requires thrill seeking and choosing to walk apart from safety and this is how it must be with our faith. We must choose to walk apart from the safety we think we know and walk in the safety only found in absolute faith. Walking with God may seem tumultuous, but that is when we must trust in Him. Just like a child looks to a father for protection, so we must look to our Father for strength when He stretches us and asks us to say ‘yes’.
The Celeste Elizabeth 