Microwave Meals and Take-aways

Aah, the weekend.  A time for relaxing and resting and recuperating.  A time for taking it easy.

And one of the main ways that we take it easy at the weekend is to indulge in microwave meals or takeaways.

Apparently us Brits consume a whopping 2 billion take-aways a year and 40% of us order one once a week.  Combine that with the fact that 83% of us regularly purchase microwave meals due to convenience and you have some pretty hefty statistics.

They are so easy and convenient and (usually) tasty.  We can put in the minimum amount of effort - simply making a phone call, or ordering online, or pricking a cellophane wrapper and pressing a few buttons - et voila, we have a meal in minutes.

But unfortunately these convenient meals aren't very good for us.  It may be cheaper and easier for us to microwave something rather than spending a long time peeling and chopping and boiling and baking, but these meals are usually loaded with fat and sugar and additives.

Whilst it takes longer to prepare and cook a 'proper meal', it is much better for us when we do.

Sometimes our faith can be like this, too - we want something quick and convenient.  Something not too costly and which requires the minimum input from us.  Something from which we can get 'nourishment' without having to 'cook'.

We don't always want to put in the effort.  And we don't always like waiting. 

But sometimes waiting is best for us.  We grow in the waiting.  Our faith is stretched and strengthened in the waiting.

"Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother.  We are enlarged in the waiting.  We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us.  But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy."

[Romans 8:27 MSG]

"God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks.  It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.  It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times."

[Lamentations 3:25-27 MSG]

We can choose to eat raw, uncooked food before it's properly 'done'.  In most cases, it probably won't harm us too badly, but we won't get much nourishment from it.  We won't get as much from it as we could.

It's the same with our faith.

The proof, as they say, is in the 'pudding'.