And the Lord said, "Make Vegan Smores!"

Ever have one of those days when you're a jerk and anything but like Jesus? 

Yeah. I had one of those yesterday. 

Worse yet, I had that moment with Joshua, my co-campus minister, and Karissa, one of our leadership students, there to view the whole thing. Goodness.  

Karissa first had the idea of doing an event called "Good S'mornings" a few weeks ago (and I've been proud to see her pursue carrying it out!). The idea is that we will love campus by making s'mores before morning classes, which will open up opportunities for conversing and building relationships. We are planning to do a test run on May 28th, and if it goes over well, we'll continue it regularly next school year as a part of our outreach and publicity. We've been planning our budget this week, looking at costs for not only regular s'mores but also some gluten-free, vegan ones because of the audience we serve here in the NorthWest. 

Enter grouchy Miriam.

It turns out vegan s'mores are three times as expensive as regular ones. And that was frustrating me. In my moment of utter non-dependancy on the Lord for provision and my extreme judgment on people with different values than me, I made a lot of non-Jesus like comments yesterday about the making of vegan s'mores, saying, among other embarrassing things I don't care to repeat, that we should just scrap the idea because those people needed to get over it anyway. 

Bless my heart.

Joshua and Karissa stuck to their guns, correcting me about my non-Jesus-like attitude and claiming that we should still do vegan smores. Praise the Lord for them! As Joshua has said before, they were graciously attempting "to keep me from the whole fish gut experience." I walked away knowing they were correct but still stubbornly claiming, "Well, I don't have to be happy about it while I am doing it!" 

Bless my heart. 

Then...what to my wondering eyes should appear this morning in Bible study? Did you know that there is a verse in the Bible about vegan smores? I didn't either! But apparently the Lord felt it necessary to show me this morning. It actually comes from the passage that was my theme verses for this whole ministry launch back last September. Funny how that works. 

Isaiah 58:6-12:

 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily;

your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

 Then you shall call, and the Lordwill answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

 And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

It was the Lord's way of saying, "If you pour yourself out for the hungry..." POUR YOURSELF OUT, Miriam. Not do the bare minimum. The bare minimum for Jesus was death on the cross. That was Him being your sacrifice. But no. He rose from the dead. He went beyond the requirement of the law (blood sacrifice) to bring you eternal life. Do you love like that?"

And as if that wasn't enough for me to get the point, I am also reading out of Ruth 2 today.  I've read the story of Ruth dozens of time, but what sticks out to me today? The fact that Boaz goes beyond what he had to do by law. Doesn't just let Ruth glean, but gives her water, food, and protection, even telling his servants to leave extra for her. 

There it is. Pour yourself out. Extra.

1Timothy 6:18-19 sums it up: 

Believers are "to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that others may take hold of that which is truly Life."

Pour yourself out. Extra. Generous. Vegan smores. Those are all synonyms for me today. 

What are the synonyms in your life today?