Making Choices

It was an average Sunday afternoon.  I was sitting at Cracker Barrel enjoying a lunch with a few friends from church and the waitress comes up to the table.  She then asks me the question I wish she didn’t. “What would you like to eat?” she would say.  I fumble my menu in my hands and make a few grunt-like noises.  I shift my eyes from left to right until they finally settle on my friend across the table.  Guess what happens next?  “You go first” is what I say.
I sometimes have a hard time making decisions.  I have learned that I can sometimes worry more about what to eat for lunch than the big decisions in life. With that in mind I bring us back to what I said.  It is often joked about that women cannot make decisions. This often makes me wonder why I have such a hard time making decisions.  You see, I know I’m male, but I can worry to death about decisions (I also love chocolate which further complicates the issue.)
But isn’t it amazing that God created life to be a ride where I get on and it does not stop until I get off?  Our life is decided by the choices we make everyday.    Although we can sit there and worry about these decisions, in some ways it is a good thing that we cannot change our minds.
I’m sure you have seen “Back to the Future”.  Marty’s experience with time travel shows how going back to fix one thing can completely change history, for better or worse.  If we were able to change all the things about our lives that we did not like we may not like the result of that future either.
I say all of that to say this: Live your life in spite of your past choices.  Don’t look back.  You can’t change the past, but your past can destroy your future.
So don’t worry so much about what you’re going to eat.  I’m sure it won’t be that big of a deal when it’s in your stomach.

On Sushi…

Isn’t it amazing how talented Japanese people are?  They can convince people to do the strangest things.  How many people have you convinced to take a raw piece of meat, covered in random adornments to make it look pretty, and shove it in their mouth?

Sushi literally means “food art” in Japanese and is actually a fine art of the culture that many people study for years.  My taste buds were not to convinced of this “artistry” as it were though.  Sushi to me was not “food art” but more of a stretching of my boundaries.

On my 21st birthday my parents and I went to a sushi bar to enjoy my “birthday meal” having never even known that such a restaurant existed.  Surprisingly, what I ordered was quite a unique experience and it made me think of how rarely I try new things.

As human beings we tend to fall into a routine because it is comfortable.  I can’t count how many times I have eaten at the same restaurants, driving by the ones I would love to try but do not want to take the risk of not enjoying what I get.  I can narrow it down even more to the items I tend to buy off of restaurant menus.  If it’s Mexican food, it’s Chicken Fajitas.  If it’s Wendy’s, it’s a “Crispy Chicken Deluxe combo”.  Even when I’m making a sandwich it always ends up being a ham and cheese sandwich with spicy mustard.

Our comfort zone keeps us safe.  We often miss out on so many opportunities in life because we do not want to step out of our comfort zone.  If I had never stretched out of my comfort zone I would have never known the joy of eating sushi.  Although it was not my favorite food, the experience was wonderful and I would be fully willing to do it again.  I almost missed out on that.

I think this “comfort zone” bleeds into many parts of each person’s life.  Your sushi may be your job, it may be your creative style, it may even be where you live or a vacation you always wanted to take.

So be brave, try some sushi tomorrow.