Seeking Comfort

Fall has come early to the desert hot spot I call home. Last night the wind blew, lightning flashed and a bit of rain kissed our parched landscape. It was the perfect night for Tamale Pie!

To me, it is the quintessential comfort food! Seasoned beef and beans, covered in a cornbread blanket: what could be better? I decided to fancy it up by purchasing a she-she cornbread mix instead of my tried and true Jiffy cornbread mix. That's where things went south. The dadgum fancy cornbread would not cook all the way through! I ended up scraping chips and salsa out of the cabinet for everyone to snack on while we waited for the gooey yellow concoction to firm up. We did manage to eat before 8pm, so I will count the meal as a success!

I will not stray from my basic, proven cornbread mix ever again. It does what it was designed to do and doesn't cost me an arm an a leg (the fancy stuff cost about 2x more - don't tell the hubby!). I may add some corn to the basic mix, though. The expensive mix had corn in it and that added a nice touch.

Seeking the new, shiny, fancy thing is a temptation all of us fall into, I suspect. The packaging makes it looks so good it is certain to be better than what we already use, right? Last night was a prime example of 'new' not necessarily being synonymous with 'improved.'

We can have the same misleading thoughts about where we choose to worship, don't you agree? Once we've spent a few years serving in a local church body, it can become a bit hum-drum to us. We might want to seek new experiences elsewhere; not because there is anything particularly wrong with our local church, but because we desire something 'different.' We see fresh paint, cool signs, or a lot of cars in the parking lot of another church and think, "Hey, that looks like there is some exciting stuff going on. Maybe I should check it out!"

That is a sure-fire way to spend the rest of your life as a church-hopper, my friend.

Every church has times where it is changing and dynamic. Every church also has times where, for whatever reason, things slow down and stabilize for a time. In order to grow as Christians and grow closer to our Christian siblings, we need to use those times to deepen our walk together, not jump ship, searching for more emotional experiences to keep us on that spiritual high we are constantly seeking. Our faith is not a feeling, it is a lifestyle.

The next time your church home enters a stabilizing time -and it will- make that body of believers your mission field. Pray for the church and its individual members. Pray for your Pastor! Look for ways to encourage your siblings in Christ. If there is another church in your community that is growing, learn from them. Seek ways to freshen and add spice to what is going on in your church. Growth always necessitates change, but it will never change if those who can change it stop caring for it. Hang in there! God will bless your tenacity!

... And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1b, NLT

For those who are interested, here's my recipe for Tamale Pie:

Ingredients:
3/4 pound lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
Vegetable cooking spray
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
1 (16-ounce) can pinto beans, drained
1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained

3/4 cup skim milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 pkg Jiffy Cornbread Mix

Preparation
Cook beef, onion, and garlic in a large saucepan coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until browned, stirring frequently to crumble the beef. Drain the beef mixture in a colander.
Return beef mixture to pan. Add chili powder, cumin, sugar, oregano, tomato sauce, pinto beans, and chiles; cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Pour mixture into a 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray; set aside.

Combine the milk and egg in a bowl, and stir well. Add the cornbread mix, and stir well. Pour the cornbread mixture over the beef mixture. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until the corn-bread topping is lightly browned.

YUM!!