Whenever I go for Chinese food (or that of any eastern Asian cuisine) my default has always been chicken fried rice. I guess I've just never been that adventurous, also with Mexican food (when I was a kid I always ordered chicken burritos), and a few other non-American cuisines. Over the years I've gradually become more adventurous, not just with food but with all sorts of things (I love biking now; I used to hate it when I was a kid).
Then came last night (OK, this morning, as we checked into a Chinatown restaurant sometime after 1 AM). We all ordered a bunch of dishes to share. I of course went with my old standby and dug in right away, savoring every last bit that I had taken. Then I tried all the other dishes. I eventually returned to my chicken fried rice dish and discovered how bland it tasted. (What?!?) Yes, bland. I couldn't believe it; I kept dishing out more and more of it, hoping that the flavor would again return. Nope. Still bland.
Yesterday evening, on the symbolic pagan date of 10-10-10 (in which 10:10 AM and PM were symbolic minutes on this symbolic day) a few of us went to Hub, a very charismatic and free-flowing worship service which involved an hour of intense and free meditation, an hour of very intensive Biblical study (with a bit of overflow for tough theological questions in which others in the room desperately wanted to gain insight from the leader), two hours of prophesying (my friends and I were almost all first-timers), and then some leftover time for prayer. The event started at 7pm; it was midnight when we finally left (there were still quite a few people there at that time).
In a few days I will gladly post in more detail the things that were prophesied about me (one of my friends wrote everything down, and I will write as soon as I get my hands on a copy), but one thing I remember is one of the individuals rightly talked about the pain and the construction that's been going on for almost a month-and-a-half now. Another couple people mentioned my child-like-ness (basically similar to whatever I wrote in this post [“http://amidthenoiseandhaste2.blogspot.com/2010/04/gifts-i-already-have-regardless-of.html”] almost six months ago... I need to revisit it at some point soon to refresh).
Speaking of symbolism, at 10:11 PM last night, a member of Hub read the following passage: [The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 (NIV) [“http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2010:10&version=NIV”]] Yeah, they were a minute late, but I'm copying and pasting it because the last half of the verse seems quite appropriate right now. Part of me is under massive re-construction, and it's probably to fulfill the idea of having life to the full, which is only possible in Jesus. Last night I ordered chicken fried rice and learned that it wasn't such a great dish after all. I also realized that it would have been wiser if I had just tasted that dish, discovered its blandness, and then moved on to the other, more fulfilling dishes.
I have a general habit of not believing until I see (as evidenced by my continual eating of the fried rice dish). Maybe part of this re-construction is to change that particular aspect as well, and apply it to other things that God will have me do, such as giving up old pains and never looking back. Normally I'd fire back with the excuse that everyone in my bloodline has a terrible time letting go of pain, but then I'm thinking God would fire back and say he is my real Father, my real parent.
Saying good-bye to chicken fried rice and other old things will be hard but I guess it's necessary. Let's do this.