"I see your TRUE COLORS..."

...I don't know if "shining through" is how I'd describe those true colors, but as it is said, "we cannot escape ourselves."

an allison post


So this month our youth group hosted Bønn og Lovsang Weekend (prayers and hymns) at our local baptist church. Young people between the ages of 11 and 30 came from various kommunes all over the telemark region. **P.S. A kommune is a mix between a county and a province.**

Alll ready and set up for a fantastic weekend of worship!
Gerber daisies line the tables bringing friendliness and life.

The result of this worship filled weekend -- fantastisk as they say here! The preparation for it -- not as much. You come to realize that ignorance is bliss as a participant on a retreat, workshop, camp. It becomes an all too different beast when you're apart of building that house! 

I got asked to do the food on account of the normal chef dropping out this year. YAY YAY YAY i thought, this is MY chance to serve and get creative with this food because I believe eating is a worship experience. Sounded great at first, but then a snowball effect rolled over my delight as I dealt with lack of information, planning misnomers, and a mini-passive-aggressive culture war that led to a significant God moment:

My sweet friend Miriam from showing her
appreciation for corn! A kind sense of humor and
enthusiasm is always welcome in my kitchen ;)

My friend Anette came over Thursday just before the event to take me grocery shopping with her since she was in charge of acquiring the food. She breaks it to me that the leader isn't so fond of some of my hot meals and that we should cut a couple things out of respect. (Norwegians are bread people, very common to eat one hot meal in a day and all other meals are bread and cheese!) I was pretty hot for a number or reasons, most I thought to be justified, which I batted off for Anette. But my "least" justified reasons showed my heart and opportunity to really worship the Lord when Anette genuinely asked, "I completely understand, would cutting these meals ruin the weekend for you?" Of course Anette was asking purely for the sake of my sanity, but surely I heard the Lord asking "even if your reasons are justified, is it worth it to destroy a posture of worship for others this weekend?" My pride wanted to answer yes to both their questions. But I knew the answer ought to be no. I half-heartedly confessed that, knowing that there's liberty in that process. 

Good ol' Jeremiah always lightening up the food.
God's gift to Allison, LOVE THAT MAN!

From then on, I was praying about my responses and surrendering the whole thing. I knew what my selfishness was capable of stirring up. Even still I found myself in puddles of tears multiple times that week, missing my people home in the states all week thinking, "They know who I am, they'd trust me with the menu, they'd know me!" But I know the Lord was drawing me into see how loved I am, known by God. It propelled me in accommodating our allergen and diet restricted participants with the same zeal and creativity as anybody else (we had nut allergy, vegetarian, vegan, lactose-free, citrus free, onion family-free, and fast-carb free restrictions. Without some intentionality "air" would have been about the only thing on the menu.) Despite being in that kitchen all day friday, saturday, and half of sunday, I felt as if I had soared on the wings of the savior. My joy and passion never ran out, people were blessed, and I believe God was honored.

Blessings go round and round!