22 November, 2006

Costa Rican Tacos

Do you ever just feel like a Costa Rican taco?

My family took a vacation in Costa Rica one year. (I was not there. Long story, and I have taken my beatings for it.) Being in a wonderful, South American country, they decided it made perfect sense to order tacos.

They received corn tortillas with browned pork, cabbage, sweet red peppers, and mayonaise.

Think about it.

All the ingredients looked exactly like an American taco, but they all tasted wrong. I am given to understand that it was a wretched shock. :-)

Would that I were always what I appear to be.

8 comments:

pearlie said...

I would have a definition of who I am and you would have a definition of who I am.
On top of that, add the different sauces and spices a.k.a. the different cultures and norm, we'd taste different :)

Anonymous said...

So if we all add descriptive ingredients of us would we contradict our own selves?
Would you be shocked at seeing the real Milly?

Kevin Knox said...

Your observations are much better than the post. :-)

When I lived in community with 2 dozen believers, I think they all knew exactly what my ingredients were. They were not always charitable with their knowledge. When you really know someone, you have a lot of responsibility to them.

We had a couple foreigners, Maeghan, and they were not different at first, and then they grew very different, and then they were not different at all again. And they never really changed. It was a funny transformation in us, and in our bonding.

Blogging is a great thing, Milly, but I don't think the bits and pieces of us that fit on a web page really say much at all. This far away, it's easy for mayonaise to look like sour cream. I would be blown away by the real Milly.

We all want to be known, and having been known, to be respected and loved. In the church, this should be a safe expectation. But when we drive to church, and drive home again two or three times a week, how can this happen?

May the Lord find a way to crack open the American church, and rebuke us to learn to love one another.

Anonymous said...

We all want to be known, and having been known, to be respected and loved. In the church, this should be a safe expectation. But when we drive to church, and drive home again two or three times a week, how can this happen?

I think parts of us want to be known, then again it could just be me that wants parts of me to remain hidden. The way in a church to be known is by getting closer to others, not just in a small group or in the church. Those who really know the Milly that I allow to be seen know her because we spend time together. I’m not totally open with anyone on this earth.

DougALug said...

What a great allegory!

When I was in Norway, I had the same experience with what they labeled and 'american hamburger'. It was a peive of steak, on a kaiser roll, with cole-slaw, and russian dressing. Whoa!

The differences is what make life wonderful. Whether we are what we seem or are completely different is exactly why we need to leap off of the ship before we claim to walk on water: you'll never know if you don't try it and experience life to its fullest.

Christianity is no different: there is what it appears like on the outside, but once you really taste it's fullness, I think it is very different than what we expected.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

God Bless
Doug

Kevin Knox said...

Milly,

You always create such great thoughts and topics!

It's hard to know how much we should be known. The Lord Himself has promised to give us a name that only He knows. There really must be a part of us that only He should ever know. But at the same time, we often protect ourselves because we are hurt and never healed.

Yes, there is a part of me that I wish was known, and a part of me that I fear one day will be. And so much of me that I'm just getting to know myself.

Patience. :-)

Kevin Knox said...

Amen, Doug.

But have you ever noticed that different from what you expect is always bad? :-)

DougALug said...

But have you ever noticed that different from what you expect is always bad?

On many things for sure. But my expectations on marriage were that I was destined to be miserable (my parents went through about 15 years of misery before it became good again). So far (10 years) it is far better than I ever expected.

God Bless
Doug