This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”  (Jeremiah 6:16)

If it had only happened once, it would have been dismissed as a simple oversight.

But it happened twice in one week. Now it could not be ignored.

The first time was when the baker realized just before spooning muffin mix into the baking cups that he had left out the brown sugar.

Normally the brown sugar would’ve been added either to the dry flour mixture or whisked in with the butter, eggs and other wet ingredients.

At this late hour, the only option was to add the brown sugar to the prepared batter and mix it up as well as possible.

On the second occasion, the chef was preparing his signature dish: Tandoori chicken. This time the missing ingredient was the lemon juice that should’ve been added to the spice mix in the blender.

Once again, improvisation saved the day. The lemon was squeezed directly over the marinade-coated pieces of chicken. Not the best solution. But it was the only option.

Both omissions could’ve been avoided by taking one simple step.

All I had to do was to pull out the recipe and check off the ingredients one by one. But, no! That was totally unnecessary. After all, had I not baked blueberry muffins with almonds and cooked Tandoori chicken on countless other occasions?

Why bother looking up the recipe? I knew it like the back of my hand!

Obviously, I hadn’t checked the back of my hand too much lately 🙂

Apparently legendary coach Vince Lombardi would begin training camp every season by holding the pigskin in his hands and saying to the professional players assembled in front of him: “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Yes, they had played football for many years. Yes, they were capable of memorizing and executing complex plays on the field. Yes, some of them had even been part of Super Bowl winning teams.

It did not matter one bit to the coach. He had to take them back to the “basic fundamentals” (as I heard one person describe them) at least once a year.

Over the 40 days of this Fast, we have been reading and reflecting on several passages that are quite well-known. One could even say that they contain the original recipe.

Whether it was the familiar passage from Exodus that contained the Ten Commandments, the passages from Ephesians 4 and I Corinthians 12 that describe the purpose and function of the Church or the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 that we focus on for the final five days of the Fast…

They are all familiar to us. We have heard them in church countless times. We have read them over and over again as part of our daily devotions. We have likely been treated to a number of sermons based on every one of them.

Yet, we cannot assume that we will remember them automatically and order our lives accordingly, can we?

That is why from time to time, we need to take the time to read them again, to reflect upon them one more time, to let them renew our minds and saturate our spirits.

This simple step prevents us from omitting key ingredients of the Christian faith and having to regret it later. It boosts our chances of enjoying the abundant life that Jesus promises in John 10:10, amen?

What other passages would you consider to be part of our “original recipe?”

Please share your responses with the rest of your DWOD family.