Keri vs Cooked Carrots

You know what would be great? If life went according to plan.


I mean, I didn't plan to be in pain all the time. I certainly didn't plan to mess up the most important class of my major. I didn't plan to be single this long. I didn't plan to watch close friendships slip away. But like the Joker in "The Dark Knight" says... nobody panics when it all goes according to plan.


It's like cooked carrots. Growing up, I HATED cooked carrots. They tasted gross and had an even worse texture. My parents must have gotten endless pleasure out of watching my face contort into the most grotesque expressions imaginable because my mom made them constantly... or so it seemed to my childhood mind. She was also big on other tortures such as vitamins, regular showers, and a regular bedtime. The indecency of it. It was so inconsiderate to my intended plans. I had it all figured out... I would eat pizza every night (plain cheese please) supplemented occasionally by McDonald's happy meals, the only vitamin's I would eat were the ones they snuck into my sugary breakfast cereal under a think coat of high fructose corn syrup, I would shower only in the sprinkler when it was warm enough, and I would stay up all night playing with my barbie dolls. When things didn't go according to my plan, I panicked. I fought my bedtime off like a knight in shining armor fought a dragon. I disposed of my vitamins in the bushes that would make a treasure-hiding pirate proud (all though I think I might not have made my X-marks-the-spot discreet enough because somehow mom caught me), and I thought of every excuse possible not to eat those carrots. If life had gone according to my plan though, I would be an elementary school drop out from sleeping through all my classes, my internal organs would be rotting away, and I probably wouldn't have any teeth. Not to mention I would have horrible vision because I refused to eat my cooked carrots (and now we know why Keri wears contacts...). Ultimately though, mom's plan won and my story turned out far differently. I graduated second in my class with a full set of sparkling white teeth and all my internal organs in tact. She knew what I needed had to come before what I wanted.


I think a lot of times I treat God's plan for me like the cooked carrot's on my plate at supper time. I don't want to touch them with a 10 foot pole much less put them into my body, but ultimately they are what I need to grow. Sometimes God's plans for me include things that hurt, or that are difficult, but the end goal is much greater than just seeing me make a funny face as I try to choke them down. His ends are beautiful, but even the most beautiful gold had to be refined through fire and the shiniest silver had to be cleansed of it's tarnish. The most elegant sculpture had to be molded and cut and fired before it was finished.


Our lives are a process of growing, shaping, learning, adjusting, and trusting... of eating those carrots.