Half Baked

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters….” Colossians 3:23, NIV

There is nothing worse for me than taking a mouth-watering bite of a baked-potato, a piece of pie or cake only to find it is half baked. What a disappointment! If you are in a social setting, you politely smile and finish chewing your crunchy potato, your soupy pie or mushy cake. When at home, it all goes back into the oven for an allotted period of time.

While trying to find a picture, I discovered that Ben and Jerry’s ice cream has a flavor called half-baked with some sort of chocolate chip cookie dough and you eat it on purpose. Things have certainly changed from when I was a kid. Mom and Grandma would not let me near the cake batter prior to baking because “it will make you very sick!” Today, I am still a little leery of this cookie dough stuff.

Leaving the food concept behind, how about those half-baked ideas? We have all had quite a few of those to deal with, haven’t we? Those are the thoughts, plans, schemes or intrigues that we have hatched, thinking we have come up with something new and innovative. We get so excited that we share them with our friends or co-workers only to have them shoot gaping holes in our newly birthed baby.

We were/are creative but we did not think it through to the end. The same works for our behaviors and that includes words. Sometimes we speak before we think! This is not a new, mind-blowing revelation but certainly one that needs our attention. When we make a promise, before we sign on the dotted line, what does the ending look like? Can we afford the time, sacrifice or even the money to make such a commitment?

In this day and age, it is easy to fall prey to the half-baked mentality. We tend to think a little is better than none at all. That is not exactly what God expects of us. To be quite honest, nothing will be half baked if we are communicating with Him. Let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart and allow everything the necessary time to finish and flourish. Make life an inevitable feast!

Wonderful, Merciful Savior with Selah

Heavenly Father, thank You for gifting us with creativity and fresh ideas. Help us to finish what we start and have the patience to complete our tasks. AMEN.