Bad Planning
I am not a chef. I belive good chefs are artists. Good chefs know how to improvise. I do not.
My lovely wife does most of the cooking. Everything she makes is delicious. She has the ability to improvise.
This day, she was not arriving at the house until 6:15, and we had somewhere to be at 7:00, meaning it is my turn to cook. I have roughly 7 meals I can make edible. My planned dish for the evening: honey salsa chicken.
I arrive home at 5:45 and begin preparing the ingredients. With the ingredients prepared, I read the directions. The final step: bake for one hour.
Improvisation
Dinner would be ready at 7:00. Baking for an hour wouldn't even give me time to finish it, much less eat it!
Remember said inability to improvise? I pull everything I have out of my improvisation skill bucket and come up with a brilliant idea!
I call my wife.
...voicemail: "Hi, this is Michelle Tankersley."
Having already used all my improvisation for the day, I am trapped with my idea.
- Call: "Hi, this is Michelle Tankersley."
- Call: "Hi, this is Michelle Tankersley."
- Call: "Hi, this is Michelle Tankersley."
- Call: "Hi, this is Michelle Tankersley."
After five back-to-back calls, I decide she must not be picking up. However, being determined to provide my wife with honey salsa chicken, I drink the dregs of my remaining improvisation, and, for the first time in my cooking history, I develop a plan!
Spilling the Nachos
"I can cook it in a skillet!" Using a skillet on a stove top is much faster than baking, and it would get the job done!
Being pleased with the idea, I rush to begin. My enthusiasm quickly fades when I see the pan of leftover nachos from the night before, enjoying its place on our best working stove top. As I pick it up to pour the crumbs into the trash, my phone rings.
In a desire to get to the phone before I missed the call, I quickly scrape off the nachos...all over the floor. "No time!" I think, throwing the nacho pan into the sink. Before sprinting into the living room, I turn on the burner to let it warm. I race to the living room, grab the phone, move my thumb to answer...and the ringing ends.
Seconds away. Love it when that happens.
Plastic Fumes
The call was from Michelle. I call her back and this time she answers. We have a chat about my idea, and she agrees I should continue with the plan. Again excited to create my delicious chicken, I return to the kitchen, only to find my cat, Tessie, enjoying a second dinner consisting of nacho crumbs. Shooing her away, I get the broom out of the closet, toss the dust pan to the side, and begin furiously sweeping up the crumbs.Finished, I look around for the dustpan. My eyes land on it. When tossing the dustpan to the side, it managed to settle right on top of the burner!
Immediately pulling the dustpan off, I discover a nice hole burned through it, leaving behind a puddle of melted plastic still cooking on the burner. Still, the dustpan works well enough to sweep up the nacho crumbs.
The burning plastic is filling the air above the stove with smoke. The air smelled just like cancer. Delicious.
Enjoying the Meal
I scrape the plastic off the burner with a grill cleaner and begin cooking the chicken. Michelle returns home, and she is thankfully forgiving of my attempt to destroy everything we own. The chicken finishes, we enjoy a nice, home-cooked meal, and we arrive at our destination at 7:05. Victory!Conclusion
We can't all be good cooks, and we don't all get to enjoy the smell of burning plastic, but we all know the sweet feeling of victory after countless defeats. I thank God for reminding me of Phillipians 2:14 in the middle of this experience: "Do all things without grumbling and arguing". Holding His Word in front of me, I stayed humored rather than annoyed. I hope He continues working in me so that when life gets much messier than spilled nachos and burnt dust pans, I will find joy in knowing Jesus as Savior and Lord, joy in what He did on the cross, and all trials will be nothing in the light of His saving grace. That is "life, and life in abundance."I hope you enjoyed my story! Any feedback or similar moments that you have to share? Leave a comment!