I actually enjoy cooking and baking. I don’t do it very often anymore but I really do enjoy it. One of my first paying jobs was as a short order cook at the Belvoir Grill on Rt. 1 in Alexandria, where I was nearly strangled by a trucker who failed to fully appreciate my refined sense of humor. (But that’s a different blog). At any rate I love to cook.
Many times when I cook I do it totally by memory, experience or instinct but when I bake I nearly always follow a recipe or the directions on a box. I sometimes vary from the recipe or the instructions but only to the extent to which I trust my own knowledge or instincts above my belief and trust in the writer of the recipe or instructions. If a recipe is a treasured favorite of my mother or someone else for whom I have tremendous faith I follow the recipe very carefully. That is a perfect example of an obedience that comes from faith.
As I have written before, the word translated “obedience” most often in the New Testament means to “listen attentively”, that is to pay close attention to the words spoken or any other kind of communication. The word translated faith most often in the New Testament means “persuaded”, therefore when describing the faith that Abraham had in God, Paul writes, “….Abraham was fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised…”. Faith always has an object. Faith can only be as strong as the faithfulness of the object of your faith combined with the measure of your personal knowledge of the object of your faith. Because I know my mother to be faithful in her writing of her recipes and I know my mother well, I pay careful attention to the details of her recipes. Obedience that comes from faith.
Ultimately, having paid very close attention to my mother’s recipes I am transformed into someone who, because of my faith in her, is changed into someone who thinks about baking in a way very similar to her if not in exactly the same way. The more attention I give her words when combined with the faith I have in her because of her faithfulness, the more I am changed and the more I bake like her by my new nature even when I am not baking one of her recipes. Everything I bake will reflect my attentive listening and my faith. An obedience that comes from faith.
At some point I no longer need the recipes. I have been changed by my attentive listening and my baking reflects my obedience and faith. Life is meant to be lived spontaneously. Life is meant to flow from a transformed mind. As Paul writes, “Be no longer conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” A renewed mind comes from attentively listening to the object of your faith and the transforming power of God’s truth. As I listen to God’s word (reading it, singing it, listening to it, studying it, praying it, writing it, sharing it, applying it, and believing it) I am changed in how I see life and all of the creatures and elements God created within it. I especially am changed in how I see myself. By nature I will begin to do the following, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is like it, Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” An obedience that comes from faith.
