Tuesday 29 May 2012

A Pretty Blue Car With An Old Rusted Dent.


A youth I work with told me about how one day she had gotten drunk, stolen her mom’s car and drove 20 minutes to the next town.  On the way back home she was pulled over by the police.  She had been driving a stolen vehicle, while drunk and she does not have even her learner’s licence.  When they called her mom her mom was furious.  She went into the youth's room and started ripping things apart, throwing things on the ground and otherwise trashing the place.  It took days for her anger to finally subside.  When the youth told what had happened, she was repentant and regretted the thing she had done.  She was working to gain back her mother’s trust and mend that relationship.

I was reminded of a time 4 or 5 years ago when I was still living at my parents house.  I asked my dad if I could borrow his car to go pick up my friend, and he willingly agreed.  As I backed out of the garage I heard a crunching sound, the sound that is made when a car hits the side of a garage.  As I was looking behind me it was that noise which alerted me to the fact that the front end of my dad’s car was crunching into the garage door frame.  When I returned to the house with my friend, slightly embarrassed, my father let me be.  Once the time had come for me to take my friend home, I approached my dad, and confessed that I had dented his car.  He nodded, I think he knew.  “Can I borrow your car again so that I can drive my friend home?” I asked somewhat timidly.  I am sure he made a joke that questioned my driving ability, but he let me drive his car again.  There was not a moment of anger, no display of disappointment.  No desire to shame me or to punish me.  When my dad’s friend came over to fix the garage door track, my dad sent me out to help.  That was the extent to which I had to make up for what I had done.  (And I am pretty sure I uselessly stood and watched and did not help at all.) Someone else fixed my mistake, and my dad drove around with a dent on his car for the rest of his life.  He wasn’t one to worry about what others would think.  He didn’t have the need to appear perfect.  He didn’t go around telling everyone that I had dented his car.  He didn’t need to because he didn’t care if people thought it was him.  He was content with what he had, even if that was a dent on his car.

I am now driving my dad’s car, a car with a dent.  A dent that reminds me of my mistake and my dad’s mercy. A dent that reminds me that appearances don’t matter, but love does.  A dent that reminds me that broken garages are easier to fix than broken people, but sometime we have to do our best to mend the wounds from other’s mistakes.  It is a dent that reminds me that what really matters in life is people, not possessions.
 
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:1

I am grateful for the opportunity I had to follow my father’s example.  He was a follower of Christ, kind and compassionate, gentle, calm and forgiving.  I hope that what I have learned from him I will be able to pass on to others.

Friday 4 May 2012

Creative Vegan Baking

So this is my third post this week (and after blogging about blogging in moderation too... oops), but I wanted to show off my creative vegan baking.

I made icecream cupcakes!

 I made a white cake, and then added some red food dye and strawberry flavour, so I made strawberry tall cake.  It tasted alright, but was actually very sweet.

I did have some troubles with the cooking of these, for example, how do you get the cones to stand up in the oven?  I cut into a tin dish, but learned that the deeper you go the less your cones can tip.  unfortunately I did not learn that right away.  Like an icecream cone, on a hot summer day, where the icecream falls off, so were some of my cones.  My first remedy was icing.  But we were low on icing sugar, so I had to use it in moderation.





But some of my cones had no"icecream" left on top at all, so I had to be more creative.

At work last week I was involved in making 500 cakepops (yes I do have possibly one of the best jobs ever).  So I used my cakepop making knowledge to make a cakepop top for my icecream cone.  I then took vegan chocolate chips and melted them and dipped the cakepop in there.












 The icecream cones were not my main focus though. I really wanted to bake heart cupcakes.



I got this idea from a picture I saw on google.  The process involved first baking the white cake, then cutting it into heart shapes, and then putting chocolate cake batter all around it  (and on top if it too).  I did not do the best job of this.  many of my cupcakes had white pieces sticking out, but hey, that is what icing is for... right?  After I iced them i realised how these cupcakes are sort of impractical.  the problem is that after icing them they only make hearts if you cut them in the right way, and after you ice them, how do you know what way that is?  Well, I think they exist mostly for taking a picture of them and putting them on one's blog so that one can look impressive.  I hope you are impressed.

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Hope for Hazel


She told us about the preacher who had come to the jail.
He was from the first non-hypocritical Church she had ever encountered
He had a real story
About real things.
He was passionate
He had been hurt.
He cried as he spoke.
As he remembered his trial.
His dad, a drunk beating his mom,
Beating him.
And then his life turned around
And now he is a preacher.
She told me that she wanted to go to his church on Sunday
For because of him, she thought, for the first time, that maybe, maybe there was hope.
Maybe there was hope for her in the midst of all she had gone through.
Since he had been able to change so much,
Maybe she could change too.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

slightly Out of Place


On Ash Wednesday I made a last minute decision to give up blogging (and primarily the reading of blogs) for Lent.  I made this decision because I was feeling super busy at that time, and I thought that blogging was the least valuable thing I did that consumed a lot of time which I could get rid of. 

I find many in our society spend a lot of time entertaining themselves either through fictional stories (primarily movies) or the lives of celebrities.  I generally think that I would rather spend my time getting to know my neighbours and hearing the stories of friends. 

Shortly after Lent began I read two books in a week.  I don’t normally read so much.  Anyhow, it made me realise that reading blogs is really just like reading short stories, or novels one chapter at a time.  Reading really isn’t bad, and blogs are the thoughts of real people, with whom I can have some (if only minimal) interaction.   

So I really don’t think blog reading is a bad thing.  It can take up too much of my time.  That is true, but in moderation it is good.  So, hopefully I can be part of the blogger world in moderation.