Freedom and Taquitos

Most of the truth I've learned about God through the years has been surprising to me. Perhaps that observation is surprising but it shouldn't be. His thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are His ways my ways. Pretty much, if I think it's going to go down a certain way, it's not.

This line of thinking brings to mind taquitos. I was eating at a really good, authentic Mexican food restaurant the other day and one of the girls with me ordered Taquitos. When our order came out, however, the food on her plate was not taquitos.

You know what I'm talking about, the little yellow sticks filled with some kind of mystery meat concoction that you buy in the freezer section and serve at parties to to dip in fake cheese and salsa. Yeah, those.

But that's not what was on her plate.

She politely pushed her food around for a while until the waitress came by and noticed she wasn't eating. I heard some of their exchange...long story short the waitress said that in fact those were taquitos. They were just real-deal taquitos. But you see, my friend likes impostor taquitos. She's so used to the fake thing that when the real deal came along she didn't even recognize it, much less want it. What can I say? The girl craves fake, frozen taquitos.

I couldn't really empathize with her. That plate of food looked dang good to me. But while I would gladly gobble up a big plate of authentically prepared taquitos, I'm thinking that all this time I've been looking for freedom and its been right in front of me...I just haven't recognized it because it's not what I though it would be. I've been looking for the worldly idea of what freedom is. The all-about-me kind of freedom. Feel-good freedom. Indulgent freedom. Overnight freedom. Fake, frozen, impostor freedom.

His ways are not the same as mine. His freedom is not going to be the way I envision it. Authentic freedom has never come without a fight. It's never come without pain or payment of a high price. Never without sacrifice. And surprisingly, but truly, never without boundaries.

It may be time to put my big-girl panties on and go with authenticity. I think I'm ready to sacrifice my expectations and put faith in a plan that is not going to be 100% pleasant for me. Commitment. Drastic Measures. Relentlessness. Obedience. Complete dependence on Another Way...

Real-deal freedom is going to be surprising, right? It's going to be nothing I thought it would be. But I believe it will be everything I never knew I wanted it to be and more.

Invitation to the Thirsty

All that said, I'm about to fire up the blog again. My goal is 2 to 3 times per week so be on the look-out.