Life Is Like a Batch of Muffins?

Although on occasions when making muffins I will use a recipe and the individual ingredients that it lists, usually I just use a box of premixed ingredients. You know – add eggs, water, oil – then stir. May not be quite the same as compiling the individual ingredients, but there’s less chance of something going wrong, and you know exactly what you’re going to get at the end – so long as you take them out of the oven at the right time!

Low risk, guaranteed result.

Quick, easy. Enjoyed by kids who aren’t that fussed about quality, so long as there’s quantity.

Is your life like that? I know mine was.

Take the easy route.

Don’t risk it.

Do what everyone else is doing. Have what everyone else is having.

If you can’t foresee or guarantee the outcome, don’t try.

Just do whatever’s quickest and easiest. The safe way. The comfortable.

But what do you most often end up with? Poor quality. Sameness. Bland. No different to the thousands of other muffins being baked in kitchens around the country.

The Gospel, the good news, is a call to abundant life, life in all its fullness. A life that is rich, satisfying, fulfilling, full. Different. Quality.

Abundant.

Joyful, peaceful, rewarding.

A thrilling adventure, that one day will culminate in eternal life and a forever in God’s presence, but a life and an adventurous life that can be fun and purposeful and abounding in love, now!

As I look at the world, I see most people wishing and yearning for ‘more’. Endless pursuits of adventure and pleasure and excitement. But it seems to me that without the living Spirit of God active in their lives, they’re all making muffins from the packet.

Jesus called us to live a life of unimaginable adventure. I mean, fancy having your life controlled by a divine spirit, for goodness sake. I never know what’s around the corner. Every day I’m surprised by the actions of God, by the goodness of God, by the love of God, by the paths that God leads me down. The chance encounters. The incredible blessings.

Every day is a day of different ingredients.

So if your life feels bland, ‘mass-produced’, safe and easy – I want to encourage you to give it all up for following Jesus. And then watch your life become so tasty and unique and unexpected and ‘full’.