Life Lessons From Pizza

Life Lessons from Pizza
by Colleen Saffron
founding partner Operation Life Transformed

OK bear with me on this it has a point other than to make me look incredibly stupid….it really does!

For TX it is a bit chilly today and so I decided to make some tea. As I went into the refrigerator to get the cream for it I saw the leftovers from last night. All of the sudden I decided I was dying for a piece of the Chicago style pizza we got last night.

So without thinking I pull a piece out of the tray; please keep in mind this is no petite hors de ourves size pizza it is a piece the size of a large man’s hand. As soon as it’s in my hand I realize I’ve got a problem. I have a giant size piece of pizza in one hand and cream in another.

So, here I stand, in the midst of my spotless (for once thank you to my youngest daughter) kitchen wondering ok NOW what? I set the cream down but really I don’t even have a plate and since I am reheating it in the toaster oven I need foil not a plate.

Have you ever tried to hold onto a heavy duty 18” roll of foil and pull a small piece off while at the same time juggling this honking size piece of stuffed pizza without making a mess in the kitchen?

May I say even I can see the humor on this one. Elbows were not made for carrying large boxes of foil! Just trust me on that one. Chicago style pizza WILL drip pepperoni and sausage on to the floor much to your dogs delight and, no, most dogs will not eat the diced tomatoes that fell at the same time.

Eventually I had to lay the pizza down on my spotless gleaming counters and get the foil readjusted (I really messed it up!) and then pick up the pizza lay it on the foil clean off the counter and fix the box it goes into. THEN I could put it in the toaster oven to reheat.

Had I been thinking at all, I would have definitely just pulled out foil, gotten pizza and then stuck it in the oven. No weird dance, no pieces of pepperoni on the floor and the counter would have stayed clean (not to mention that poor foil box!).

Now, what is the point of this other than to show myself a bit strange at times? My purpose here is that I had a path and a purpose when I went to that refrigerator and I got distracted by my other appetites. Now it was not wrong to feed that appetite but had I continued what I had been doing THEN gotten my food it sure would have been a LOT easier and faster and may I say less ridiculous (I am really praying hubby has never installed a nanny cam for sheer fun!).

So has God ever given you a purpose? A Path to follow and a job he wants you to do? How often do you get distracted by other things? Other appetites? Not wrong appetites just other things that are NOT what He put before you?

As believers we often are charged to do a work for the Lord, one that will further His Kingdom in some way and we get sidetracked with a million little things that look good but the question is: are they what you were going to do in the first place?

Should you not complete the task before you THEN go to the other work? The results of the distracted work can certainly be redeemed (I mean I did get my pizza and I am no longer hungry) but sometimes it takes a massive effort to do a simple task when you are off the path God set you on.

I don’t have just one scripture to toss out at you right now but there are many that apply, I just wanted to share a “slice” of my day with you and how God can even teach me when I am trying to eat some pizza.