As I begin to wrap up my time at my job, I was asked to write something for our quarterly publication. The inspiration/topic would’ve been how the dissension within our conference has affected youth and young adults. It was a difficult topic, and when I sat down to write it (having put it off longer than I wanted to) I felt a weight settle on my chest, on my hands, on my shoulders.
I didn’t write on that topic for a few specific reasons. Firstly, I don’t think I can speak for a majority of young adults, let alone represent their opinions in a published source. My style is honest because I think that’s what makes writing good, and all I can be sure of is how the dissension has affected me. Secondly, talking about how difficult it’s been for me is depressing, and not something I would personally want to read, either.
Instead, I came up with “Church Soup”.
I know we have our borscht and our barley and our chicken noodle soups, but let me introduce you to church soup – a steamy hot pot of goodness.
Church soup is as you would expect, made up of you and me and a lot in between, as well as the people we never expect. It’s made up of our churches and our care groups and our community events and our missions and our outreach. It’s made up of our turmoil, our frustrations, as well as our apathy. What a mix!
If you have ever made a soup, then you know that it is never made of one ingredient (usually). More often than not they have 3 or more. Let’s think of those first 3 ingredients as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Great! Now add us, our programs, our hopes and our worries. Add our fears and (let’s be honest) our bitterness. Okay, now we’re cookin’!
Right now, we have our soup and it is a little bit of a hot mess. We’ve been cooking in the kitchen for a long time now and we’re no longer sure we really want this soup anymore. What happened to it? Maybe some of us tried to make this soup a bit too sweet, and we forgot to keep in mind that we had star anise in the pantry to balance it out. Maybe some of us have tried to make soup, but all we’ve been putting in it was our star anise. Maybe we’re upset because we think someone made us soup but didn’t ask us what we wanted in it.
But remember that we’re all in this soup and we all have something to flavour it with. What are you flavouring our soup with? Does your soup have a strong core group within the church, but is lacking in community outreach? Or does your soup have a lot of visitors, but no one to lead your programs? Maybe your bible study groups are well attended, but overall church cohesion is missing. Maybe your church keeps making soup, but needs soup, too?
For myself, I’m tired and I really need soup. I think a lot of us do. Right now I could use a big bowl of chicken noodle soup because it feels like all that I’ve been having for the last year is a bowl of spicy, burn-the-roof-of-your-mouth-hot broth. Not very sustainable. However, I’ve been reminded of what soup tastes like when we have balance.
When we make soup for others we are really making soup for God, and that soup tastes the best – I promise. When others look at us and all of our ingredients, they’re not going to ask what the fifth or the tenth or the thirtieth ingredient is because what kind of soup it is will be obvious. Instead, they’ll ask, “who is the soup for?” I think Jesus would’ve answered, “For those who need it.” I hope we, too, are all making soup for those who need it.
Simply Sarah 