My Spice Drawer

In preparation for the Holiday Baking Marathon of 2006, I spent some time this weekend taking inventory of my spices and cleaning out the two drawers where my spices live, so to speak. I know spices don’t literally live, as in they don’t breathe or grow or anything like that. However, they do reside in my drawers and “reside” is a synonym of “live.” So if not literally, they figuratively live in those drawers.

But I digress….

The aforementioned spice drawers were a mess. I actually found three jars of Sage in there. Sage! I use that spice once, maybe twice a year to make stuffing. And Cinnamon! I found one big warehouse store jar and a dollar store bottle of the stuff. Plus, there was a bottle of cinnamon-sugar I sometimes use to make cinnamon toast. I could bake every day for a year and not use up all that Cinnamon! Does anyone but me own a jar of Mace? I don’t have the foggiest idea when or why I bought Mace, of all things. And exactly what is White Pepper, anyway? Why does anyone need White Pepper?

I ended up tossing the trendy stuff and the old stuff. I dusted off the jars of the rest, rinsed out the drawers, and put everything back in a more organized, pleasing arrangement. All of my standards – Pepper, Salt, Garlic Powder, Basil and Cinnamon – are easily found. Now I won’t be making duplicate purchases of essential items I already have. I have some lesser-used spices. These are not essential, but are fun to add interest to meals from time to time.

I have recently discovered a few spice blends that perk up our meals, but even these new favorites have significant amounts of the basic spices I love in them. None of them contain anything too trendy that will simply sit on the shelf, wasting space until they are old enough to justify tossing them.

As I was admiring my freshened spice area, a thought came to me. My spice drawer is a lot like the church. The basics, God’s Word, Love and Prayer, are essential, but can sometimes get lost when trendy worship ideas are carelessly tossed in. This is especially true when trendy styles don’t have the basics of Worship as their core ingredients. I’ve seen my share of trendy, “seeker-friendly,” watered-down services. At first blush this approach can seem like a great idea. Don’t turn people off by reminding them of sin and hell. Focus on the feel-good parts of our faith and they will be more likely to come back. But what will they come back to? Another service filled with spiritual half-truths? Because, if all we share with the lost world is God is Good, that really is only part of the story. God is also Just, and the wages of sin is death. If we refrain from telling the whole truth we are lying to people who are destined for hell without Jesus, just like I was. Just like my pastor was. Just like we all are!

However, just like I have found some new blends to keep in my spice drawer for my family to enjoy, there are wonderful new blends of worship that can bless the family of God, His Church. When the central ingredients of worship are unchanged, kept pure, we can add all sorts of elements that enrich worship experiences for all who hunger for more of Him. Music, from contemporary to classical, when lifted up to magnify God, fills me with a sense of closeness to Him that I rarely find anywhere else other than during my private prayer time. New Bible translations have made the Word of God more accessible to those of us who can be intimidated by all of those thee’s and thou’s found in older translations. I’m obviously partial to the New Living Translation.

I guess what I am saying is we can all take a lesson on worship from my spice drawer. Honor the basics of our faith; the Bible, love, prayer. Give them primary importance in your worship. Trendy stuff that has nothing to do with the basics might be fun to try, but will never sustain you. New blends of worship, when grounded in the basics, can be a great benefit by adding freshness to our time of community worship, but should never take the place of the essentials.

I don’t mean to sound frivolous. If this entry offends, please accept my apologies as such an affect was never my intention. I am beginning to grow more comfortable with the idea that God uses everything for His good, even spice drawers. If He has something He wants to tell me, I want to hear it and share it; even if it is done in a context that is a bit unconventional. That is the way I learn best anyway! Any thoughts?