December 12th

Im watching Heston Blumenthal - the mad scientific chef who uses nitrous oxide in his kitchen like I used self raising flour.   He is currently doing a TV series about spectacularly big food.  So far he has made the worlds largest cup of tea and digestive biscuits.  The world's largest 99 ice cream cone and tonight he is attempting a gigantic packed lunch.  Complete with Hula Hoops and a massive Kit Kat

The reason why Heston has become a household name is that he thinks outside the box.   He looks at what has always been done and says ' lets see if we can do that differently'.    He is not afraid to fail - in fact he fails all the time and he must waste tonnes of food in the process.   But he learns from his mistakes and in the end pushes the boundaries of what is possible, to create never-before-created culinary delights, experiences and flavours.

Last weekend I was away with some of the ladies from church for a retreat type thing.  House by the sea, good food, some worship, some bible teaching, some chill time.   Nice.   On Saturday afternoon I remembered I had my painting stuff with me in the car so I brought it in and asked if anyone wanted to join me in painting for a while.  Melanie, the pastor's wife, declined saying she couldn't paint and would never be able to.   I said that I thought anyone could paint if they were shown how to and given a bit of help.   She was persuaded to give it a go.  I gave her a simple picture to copy, showed her how to get started and off she went.   Half an hour later - with a small amount of help, but mainly just cheering from the sidelines- she had produced a lovely painting of a dove.  Which looked like a dove.  And with which she was immensely pleased.
She went home from the weekend and told her husband that she is now an artist!

The moral of the story is that we are all constrained by.......well.....constraints!  We allow how things have always been to define how they will be in the future.   We believe that things will never change.   That we are who we are and that's that.   We dont see past the obvious.  We dont think out of the box, and we are terrified of failing.
The Bible says ;

Lord, thank you that You are not constrained by anything and that You live in me.   Thank you that You are infinitely creative , tireless and overflowing with plans, ideas and vision for humanity.   Forgive me when I settle for the status quo.  When I am lazy and lethargic rather than courageous and innovative.  When my fear of failure holds me back from doing the thing You are asking me to do.    May I constantly be discovering new things about myself, my world and You.  Help me to think big and give me the confidence to act on the big vision You give me.   Amen