Free Hot Chocolate

~ Emily ~ Leave a comment

On Monday mornings, Tim and I mix up 5 gallons of hot chocolate and wheel it over to Coeur d’Alene High School.  We stand  off to the side just down from the, main entrance, ready to hand out a steamy cup of cocoa to any interested passerby.

Our badges signify we are volunteers from a church, but other than that small identifier we go incognito.  We pass out hot chocolate to make connections, to start building relationships with students in our community.

It has been fun to watch students open up a bit more each week – they recognize us and are willing to give more than one word answers to questions.

The first couple weeks were prime people watching.  Most people didn’t know how to respond to the strangers lurking in the entryway or the wares they were offering.

Some students avoided eye contact completely.  Others eyed us openly with interest but kept walking.  Some students kept glancing our way with a mixture of desire and suspicion.  Even when we offered hot chocolate to people, emphasizing it was free, they would shuffle away or pretend they didn’t hear us.

After observing these reactions to free hot chocolate, it dawned on me that these are the same responses Jesus gets to His free gift of salvation.  What seems like a no-brainer decision to Him is often met with reluctance, disbelief, and suspicion.

Though Christ resides in me, I often respond to God’s gifts like an unbeliever.  I avoid God when He offers forgiveness.  I am suspicious of His grace.  I shuffle away from His unconditional love, wondering why He would offer that to me.

My actions and attitudes don’t always reflect what I truly believe about my God – that He loves me, that He desires to be in a relationship with me, that He won’t leave me.

I pray that God replaces my suspicion with trust, my fears with hope.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

{Hebrews 4:14-16, emphasis mine}

How do you approach God and His abundant good gifts?

A New Holiday Tradition {of the culinary sort}

~ Emily ~ 7 Comments

I am a stickler for traditions – especially around the holidays and especially in regards to food.

Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without brown sugar, pecan crusted, butter laden sweet potato casserole or stuffing made with Mrs. Cubbison’s (who I always imagined was good friends with Aunt Jemima…) classic dressing mix.

Every once in a while, however, a new culinary tradition is born, a recipe so good it breaks right in to the standards with fresh flavors and an addictive quality that demands repeating.

This happened last year with Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip.

A friend brought it to a Thanksgiving celebration and I couldn’t walk away from the plate. We ate the dip with tortilla chips and Wheat Thins. Basically, anything crispy or salty was an excellent foil for the smooth tang of cream cheese piled high with a sweet-tart cranberry relish.

My fiance, now husband, and I proceeded to take this dip to every function left in the holiday season.  It went from the desert to the chilly Ozarks and back home again.

My mom flew to Idaho for Thanksgiving this year.  When we planned the menu, you better bet the Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip made the list for pre-meal munching.

If you’re like me and forget to pick up a lemon while you’re at the grocery store, sit your little hiney back in the car and go get one. (Or have your ever so kind husband grab one on the way home from youth group even though he is dead tired – thanks, babe! When he heard what I needed it for, he agreed that the extra stop was worth it).

The lemon juice, combined with the sugar, helps break down the cranberries and totally brightens up the relish.  Our go to vehicle for this insanely addictive dip is Wheat Thins, but any beloved crackerish item will work.

I do hope this dip finds its way into your holiday recipe repertoire! Your family and friends will love this new tradition.

 

Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

Original recipe by Jamie Cooks It Up!

Time: 15 minutes prep + 4 hours refrigeration

1  12 oz package fresh cranberries

1/4 C green onion, chopped

1/4 C cilantro, chopped

1 small jalapeno pepper

1 1/4 C sugar

1/4 t cumin

2 T lemon juice

dash salt

2  8 oz packages cream cheese (I used reduced fat)

The night before (or at least 4 hours in advance):

Rinse cranberries under cool water and pick out any shriveled or bad cranberries. Place berries in the bowl of a food processor. I’ve chopped by hand and the results are much quicker and more cohesive when done in a food processor.

I’m not one for extreme heat so I use half of the jalapeño.  Take the rib and seeds out. Chop green onion, cilantro, and jalapeño into smaller pieces.  Add to processor with sugar, cumin, lemon juice, and salt.

Pulse mixture until the cranberries look like gravel and the other ingredients are well incorporated.  Put in a bowl and chill (I vote overnight!).

Let the cream cheese come to room temperature a couple hours before you’d like to serve the dip.  Place the foil wrapped bricks in room temperature water for awhile to speed up the process.

Use a knife or spatula (an off-set spatula, like you would use to frost a cake, works wonders here) to spread both blocks of cream cheese over a plate.  Pour cranberry mixture over the cream cheese.

Serve with crackers or chips of choice.

Three of us devoured half of it in one sitting and the remaining half the next day. Just put saran wrap over the plate and all is well for eating leftovers.

Pure & Simple

Food For Thought on Thanksgiving

~ Emily ~ Leave a comment

Our lives are a gift. Our faith is unearned. Our prayer is given to us with no strings attached.

Why does God give us, as ungrateful as we are, so many pleasures, so many graces, so many delights?

I don’t know.

What I do know is that there is joy in giving to someone you love.

What I do know is that when we gratefully receive God and God’s way of life, we give God pleasure.

What I do know is that in gratitude we become more alive, more free, and better able to love others.

{Mark Yaconelli in Wonder, Fear, and Longing.  Emphasis mine.}

Read Along The Road

~ Emily ~ 3 Comments

 

Highlights from my recent readings:

3 truths of personal growth | Simple Mom

Do whatever you can to drink from the fountain of wisdom. Sometimes it will be messy. Sometimes it will be a trickle. Sometimes it will rain down hard. But if you look for mentors, start now, and choose persistence, you’ll be in the perfect position to own your life and make it grow.

Now is the time to grow, learn and be women who inspire. 

{by Kat at Inspired To Action}

How Not To Miss Your Real Life Calling | A Holy Experience

A career is about the guidebook and a calling is about leaning on the Guide who speaks to you through His Book. A career is about making a plan and a calling is about trusting a Person who changes the plan. Grace, that careers can fall way to callings.

The call that thing one keeps listening for and the heart of faith is the ear.

{by Ann Voskamp}

Bricks: Final Thoughts On An Open Letter | the extraordinary ordinary

One day we will certainly all fall apart at once and with faces to the ground in our messes we will have to cry over all that we did not see. Oh no, actually, I do not mean the state of the sinful awful world around us but the state of our own hearts and minds and how did we not see?

{by Heather}

A Portion of Primitive

~ Emily ~ 2 Comments

Primitive can be tricky.  It often connotes a rustic atmosphere, maybe a setting that lacks comfort and convenience.  But, the rustic qualities of primitive go hand-in-hand with the pastoral beauty of rural settings.

The same dichotomy applies to the un-paved aspects of life.  Primitive can be heartbreaking and painful, full of trials and obstacles.  But, the rough roads we traverse are often what yields the most abundant spiritual harvest.  Primitive produces eyes that see beyond circumstance, a joy that is not bound by daily pressures, and humble spirit that could only be brought on by a bumpy path.

Because I am reading One Thousand Gifts, gratitude is continually on my mind.  In the midst of irritation and frustration, I can’t help but hear the echoes of eucharisteo in my heart.  Sometimes, when all I want to do is wallow in my bitterness and cross feelings, I envision Ann running across a field, her apron flying behind as she chases the moon.  She is wanting to touch the beauty of creation, to feel a part of this life God made.

I know I have a responsibility to chase after my own moons, to reach out at all costs to find the eucharisteo in all life’s circumstances.  I choose whether to accept or whether to reject what God has so freely given.

I’m beginning to see eucharisteo is both the rustic and rich parts of life.  I see the beauty in primitive and I am thankful.

I look at rain and am thankful for the pines towering above in puddles below.

I sense the cold outside and am thankful for my cozy blankets and mugs of hot tea.

I participate in conflict and am thankful for grace and forgiveness.

We have each been dealt a portion of primitive.  We choose whether it is a source of burden or beauty.

How do you respond to your portion of primitive?

I’ll be featuring A Portion of Primitive occasionally to spotlight the primitive in my life.  My primitive this week is the natural beauty that surrounds our home.

Sometimes woods and trails are hard to traverse.  Just last week, Tim and I had to turn back from an attempt to hike because of icy conditions.  I was deeply thankful to see the trail overflowing with green this weekend, even in the middle of Winter.