I’ve always enjoyed the Food Network show Chopped. I’m no gourmet, but since the original Iron Chef first showed up on Food Network, cooking battle shows have tickled my fancy. One of the most intriguing and challenging aspects of Chopped is the mystery basket. Not only do the chefs have to battle the clock to create amazing dishes, they must do so using four random, mandatory ingredients revealed only moments before the clock starts. Prawns. Chocolate. Pickled eggplant. Lemon-herb cough drops. From disjointed combos such as that they must produce a dish that meets the tough standard of the judges. Some are dazzling successes. Some don’t quite come together but get through by the skin of their teeth. Some end up under a sliver cloche…and…get chopped.
Each of us is something of a mystery basket of random ingredients. We all have our gifts and talents, hopes and dreams. And most of us have at least some awareness of activities that energize us As kids we explore and experiment, discovering what our basket holds – and what it doesn’t. As we gradually swap hoods – from child to adult, the ticking clock of the “real world” starts to pressure us into making something publicly presentable, economically productive, and spiritually meaningful (hopefully) of our basket. And like the chefs on Chopped determine what items they need from the pantry and the fridge in order to pull their dish together, we too must pull ingredients from the “pantry” – education, new skills, personal connections, confidence, etc. To be who we think we should be or become, stuff is missing.
Let’s be clear, the Chopped chefs need those other ingredients in some amount to make a cohesive and edible dish. But common mistakes they make are either using so much of those other items that they fail to spotlight the basket items, misusing a basket item due to lack of experience or familiarity with it, or even worse, forgetting to include basket item(s) altogether. Just like the chefs in the competition kitchen, we can go off track when we forsake focusing on the things in the basket that make us who we are. Either we try to pull in too much that is either aspirational or marginal in its impact to living the life God intended for us, or we forget some of our basket ingredients altogether, neglecting real, obvious gifts that we bring to to world: things that others often see more clearly in us than we can in ourselves. Or we may recognize that we’ve been gifted in some way, but lack confidence enough to ever put ourselves out there to use it to full potential. The life that results might be reasonable enough and even somewhat satisfying, but deep down we still feel like something’s missing, or it’s not what it should be.
The solution? Let God cook. The secret to unlocking the best flavor of us, no matter what’s in our basket, lies entirely in the hands of the chef. When we put the apron on and try to cook up the best version of ourselves, we’re always going to fall short. Why? Because to us our basket is a mystery that we keep having to unpack and discover as we go. Our loving Father, the original Master Chef (another great show) knew everything that goes into that basket, and exactly how to pull the very best dish together from it, because He put it there. The “basket” that makes up each one of us unique children of God is no mystery to Him. Unlike those Chopped chefs having to think on their feet and improvise a recipe on the fly to get something decent on the plate, God already had the best plan for each of our lives long before our clock ever started counting down.
Letting God cook isn’t easy. We want control. We often think we know what we want to do, what will make us happy, and what the world expects from us. And sometimes even if we’re clear on what our best ingredients are, putting them together in a way that’s livable and sustainable day-to-day is not a straightforward effort. Speaking from current experience, that can be especially tough to overcome. Having had my position eliminated a few months ago has enabled me to be more fully present for loved ones who’ve needed it in their current seasons of life. It’s also given me time to reflect on what’s in my basket and the life I was trying to cook up with it. And there was a LOT from the pantry in there. While it might have been palatable and even dazzlingly presented to outsiders, it was missing a lot of my basket ingredients and completely unsatisfying to me. I had to step back and realize that if I’m going to come out of this with a dish that satisfies my soul it’s going to require a very delicate and practiced chef, otherwise I’m going to find myself “chopped” from many of life’s more basic physical necessities. God has me in a place where I’m really going to have to let him cook if I’m going to stay in the game.
But Letting God cook is far from just sitting back unaffected and letting life happen to us, either. As each of us reflects on our own basket, we must listen to His voice and trust His guidance to find the best ways to combine our gifts and talents with what the world and our circumstances present us. To do that requires a deeper level of seeking and trusting Him then most of us are prepared for. Following God in this kitchen often involves uncertainty in the day-to-day that we’re definitely not used to, let alone comfortable with. But it’s here that we’re perhaps most open to be made into what God truly envisioned for us when He filled our basket. Total dependence on Him, mixed with mindful action and feeling the Spirit’s flow in moments of energizing efforts enables Him to work through us to create the most beautiful, satisfying, and winning dish that our lives can become.