Several years ago we went to Alaska as kind of a last hurrah with “just the two of us”, since I was pregnant with our first kid. We went to Denali National Park — beautiful place – and one of the more memorable parts of our time there was visiting the Denali sled dogs.
Being ”information geeks” we went to one of the presentations the park rangers did, describing what the dogs did and how useful they were in park operations during the winter, etc. They ended with a demonstration of the dogs pulling a sled — sans snow, since it was the end of August. When they pulled the sled and harnesses out, something unusual happened: all the dogs in their kennels, barely visible to us in the presentation area, began running to the ends of their chains towards the park ranger making the sled selection, and they all started barking and howling. I don’t speak dog, but I believe this could have been roughly translated as, “Pick me! Pick me!”
The dogs who were selected to pull the sled could barely contain themselves. They were shivering with joy and excitement. The sled driver barely had to signal and these dogs were off and running. They did a few laps around the grounds and when they stopped, I’m pretty sure I heard one of them say “Awwwww, over already?!”
I have never seen anything so born to do what they do: these dogs were born to pull sleds. What seemed to me like a ton of work, was pure joy for them.
I wanted to “give rest” this week, in some small way, and so yesterday I brought dinner to some people who I thought could use a small “rest” from making dinner for their families.
And I had so much fun. I am pretty sure of all the people affected by the situation, I got the most enjoyment out of it. And it was surprisingly easy. Granted, I kinda took some mass-production shortcuts on the chicken. And I used sauce from a jar and pre-grated cheese and didn’t even make my own bread. But considering that I made dinner for seven families (including my own) and didn’t feel like a major production? Nice!
I mentioned before that I love people with food. Which would be correctly interpretted any way you read the sentence. But, for my purposes here, I will stick with the interpretation that means “I show love to people by feeding them”. This comes easily and naturally for me and brings me joy.
Now calling people up on the phone to chat? SCARY. Being with people I don’t know well? WORK. Being a thoughtful listener and caring, likable person? EXHAUSTING. Suggest getting together? We’ll move that to tomorrow’s to-do list, OK?
I have spent a lot of time trying to love people like everyone else loves people. Like everyone else says we’re supposed to love people. And while I realize that God often asks us to step outside our natural inclination and gifting, I think that when we do what we were built to do it brings him great joy. I can picture him grinning and saying, “Ha, ha! There’s my girl, Michelle. I put this special thing inside her that makes her want to feed people she knows. This creating business is such clever and original work. And look! She’s doing it and see how happy she is?”
So all that is to say, making chicken yesterday made me realize how restful and refreshing it is to be who God created me to be. And how stressful and tiring it is when I am trying to be someone else because I feel pressured to from others or because I’m comparing myself to them and not feeling like I measure up. I like that we’re all designed to serve and love in different ways, but sometimes I forget to enjoy God’s creativity.
