Leftovers

When I was young and lived at home, we always seemed to have leftovers, more often than the original meal, for a reason! My mother admittedly disliked cooking and it showed, she did it because the family needed a meal each day! She started this campaign of no longer serving leftovers, but serving "plan aheads." This term revisited me a couple of weeks ago when Sandra and I were going out, my mom would be serving the kids leftovers. "No, Chris, they are plan aheads," she alarmed me with her response. Semantics of a simple term with a powerful difference! Leftovers were the next day, plan aheads were the subsequent days after until they were gone! I began thinking, this term flashes back memories of having to force some food down, so I thought lets flip this memory on it's head. "Not my will but yours be done!"
I began to think about communication, a necessary part of life. Am I serving leftovers, plan aheads in my communicating with others?

Each Sunday I go to church, I hear a message, something communicated to me, to grow internally in me, challenging me to feed from it for a week or more. I find myself weeks later still feeding on these thoughts, this message continues to steep flavor into my life. I draw on the words fed to me, I use them in my communications, implement them and harvest results. I have been blessed with a communicator in my life who week after week is able to deliver this kind of "soul food." Pastor Steven (http://stevenfurtick.com) is able to wrap words around my heart with clarity and passion. Instilling a thirst to dig deeper, to ponder and grow in my walk. I have been taught by some incredible Pastor's, some serve so far over my head, garnished and plated with too much detail to be fed, I miss the meal entirely. I become satiated. Others are so diluted and stretched, I miss the significance, to be fed. Pastor Furtick is able to serve up the nutrition in such a way that I am always fed. For Pastor, he may be serving up "plan aheads" because it is feeding me so much for so long. For me I am enjoying the "leftovers" for days, weeks harvesting bounty from his servings, even more than the original meal, ..."for its roots went down to abundant waters." This is the ability to communicate, Ezekiel 31:4 (Whole Chapter) The waters nourished it, deep springs made it grow tall; their streams flowed all around its base and sent their channels to all the trees of the field.