The Greatest Chocolate Chip Cookies of All Time

I consider my friend Lisa to be my personal food expert. Seriously. She always knows where the best restaurants are, she's never short on wise food analogies that can change your life (my favorites include the frozen pizza and the golden grapes), and she most recently directed me to a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that puts all other cookie recipes to shame in my book. However, Jeremy and I have the hardest time following directions for some reason. We'll read them before hand, buy the necessary ingredients (or so we think) and go to town. Then halfway through making them we realize we forgot to get two bags of chocolate chips... or what exactly does golden brown mean? It never fails. But in those times when we are forced to think outside the page, so to speak, our best work is accomplished and low and behold we made the most delicious batch of cookies that either of us have ever experienced. Was it the mix of two kinds of chocolate or one of the countless other "mistakes" we had made that made them so amazing? Who knows, but you can bet we'll try our best to screw up another batch soon!

All of this reminds me of a quote a friend recently forwarded on to me; "Concretely, abandonment consists in seeing the will of God in all people, events, and circumstances present to you. If God tears up your beautiful game plan and leads you into a valley instead of onto a mountain top it's because He wants you to discover His plan, which is more beautiful than you can imagine. The response of trust is 'Thank You, Jesus', even if it's through clenched teeth." -Brennan Manning.

What would our lives look like as Christ-followers if we gave ourselves over to this kind of abandoned living... to this kind of surrendered life? What if we weren't so focussed on following our recipe for the day and opened our eyes to what the Beautiful Creator is already at work doing around us? I long to live with that kind of purpose! To not let the busy monotony of life distract me from enjoying the One my heart loves. Our greatest idea of living does not even compare to the sweet life He has in store for us.

"None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him'—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God."

-2 Corinthians 2:8-10