Greetings to TSJ Friends and Readers!
A familiar tingle of excitement visibly affected Solomon when he saw me open up the computer and I told him I was going to write to “our 
peeps” today. I told him I could not actually make virtual chocolate cookies for everyone but if I sent a picture of them people would automatically salivate and feel welcomed to the blog.
We wish you could be here to enjoy them. Solomon really misses you as do I and Solomon Junior (SJ). They have partnered with me and many of you for several years and participated in hundreds of blogs.
But Solomon says it really is time to catch you up on some of the things that have been happening here at The Shared Journey home/headquarters and share matters of the heart and mind that we all have in common at some time in our lives.
So I am pretending that you – faithful fans that follow our activities and anticipate words of encouragement and wisdom – are sitting here in our sun drenched office. And these homemade cookies that were made yesterday for contractors working at our headquarters bring with them a short message of love and encouragement to our TSJ friends too. You can’t smell them and the chocolate won’t melt in your fingers or mouths but they are as symbolic of homespun warmth as Solomon is of wisdom. And they are the object of today’s wisdom thoughts.
As you know, we talk often here about perfection and imperfection and how our drive for perfection often keeps our spirits in turmoil or chaos. It is so human. And to be human means we have uneven edges…like these cookies. As you can see, some have more or fewer chocolate chips than others, some have edges breaking off luring people to pick at the broken pieces, some are a tiny bit crisper than others, and some are nicely self contained and shaped to please.
And to be human means to preoccupied with self-interest that drives us to believe in lack rather than in fulfillment and contentment (after all we have a voraciously hungry ego that needs constant feeding). We entertain thoughts of comparison that are almost non-stoppable. We grow depressed, discontented, worried, competitive. We feel disconnected from ourselves and from the peace that God’s love and forgiveness can bring.
Now, just as these cookies are irregular or imperfect they are all simply cookies. And to that end they are perfect. I, their creator, made them to satisfy. They have the same ingredients and were made for the same purpose. They have the same potential to bring pleasure to the palate. And the only time anyone would even care about the irregular edges or occasional broken piece is if they were being judged in a competition for appearance. And if you ask the contractors I made these cookies for, you would learn that appearance did not matter at all. In fact they had extras and wanted to take these imperfectly perfect cookies home to their families. They fulfilled their purpose.
In a way, you and I are imperfectly perfect too. Just as I made these cookies out of of love and hospitality – God makes all of us out of His perfect love and the hospitality as He welcomes us to do our work on earth – similar to the cookies designed to welcome the workmen to our headquarters.
This week I have pondered the truth that our Creator made us with one major purpose or calling. .. to love. We are created for love. That is our work on earth. Admittedly we have ragged edges and broken pieces. But all of us are called, according to scriptures, to love God, each other and ourselves with heart, with mind and with all our strength (Deuteronomy 6:5 Leviticus 19:18). In the process, we will sometimes suffer. We will falter and wear ourselves out when we forget who our Creator is and that we are so loved there is no place to go where God is not. Simply put, God Is.
So, you too are imperfectly perfect like the cookies. All of equal worth and value. All made for the purpose of bringing love and light to each other. If we do this with our whole hearts and minds we will dispel some of the world’s darkness.
Meanwhile, our contractor and his nephew who are creating a sidewalk in the front and a small patio in the back – enjoyed the cookies. But we benefited too! Both in tasting them and in the joy they brought the workers.
When we give away our love we give away what is not ours to keep only to gain what we cannot loose. That brings to mind a quote by Michael Smith that says, “Love wasn’t put in your heart to stay. Love isn’t love ’til you give it away.”
I wish I could make cookies for all of you but I write this blog to offer you a reminder that each of you is remembered, prayed for and loved. As you enter the summer months we wish you happy shepherding! We love hearing from you! And I hope to touch base with many of you in the weeks ahead.
