The Residue

I haven’t posted in months, maybe even a year.  I’ve thought of cancelling this subscription many times.  But something always pulls me back.

For the first time in my 49 years of life, I cooked the collard greens for family dinner.  Let me revise that.  I cooked non-canned collard greens. Washed them, seasoned them, put them in the pot, and let them cook for hours.  I never realized just how long it takes to make a pot of greens.  It felt like this was an all day process.  My poor child was QC (Quality Control) for this batch.  He probably doesn’t even want them for Thanksgiving, lol. 

Some things I noticed during this experience.  First thing is that people get confused by what they see.   We believe that what you see is the best that you will get.   When I talked to my mom and told her that I was cooking them from scratch, she had me show her the quantity of collars that I had.  She said, it wasn’t enough.  So I went back to the store and got more.  Then she had me show her the size of my pot and told me to make sure that I stuff them all down inside the pot because they would shrink.  Now, my momma is my expert in all things kitchen.  I promise you she should open her own school on old fashion soul food cooking.  But I was skeptical on the fact that these four pounds of greens were going to fit into this pot.  But if the master teacher has given direction, who are we to question the direction?  So with my skepticism, I put all these collards in a pot.  And they fit.  The teacher isn’t wrong.  It’s where we put our faith and trust.  It’s if we are willing to follow a path set for us even if we don’t know where it’s leading. 

Secondly, I noticed something happened when they were done.  There is a smell to them, a taste, a feel, a look when they’ve cooked long enough.  The leaves are no longer rubbery.  There are soft and malleable.  A change has happened from the time I put them on the fire until the time that they’ve come off.  They’ve been changed by their environment.  Seasoned and ready for consumption.  Collard greens.  The amount of them that went in is the same as the amount that came out but you wouldn’t think so because of the shrinkage.  It appears that they’ve been reduced to be usable.  But in actuality,  the essence of them is still there.  What’s changed is the appearance of them. This is what happens when you sit in the fire, change happens and its a change for the better when the fire is maned by the Master.

Thirdly, as I was switching them from the cooking pan to the serving pan, I realized I didn’t want all of the juice. I remember the old folks used to call it pot liquor. What I wanted wasn’t the juice at the top.  As with my green beans, I poured the top juice out and used the juice at the bottom of the pan, the residue to pour into the serving pan.  That’s where the flavor is… in the residue.  People will use the top juice because that’s the first thing they get to but if they wait a bit longer, they’ll notice that the good seasoning is at the bottom.  The flavor was what was closest to the heat!!!  You can’t be flavorful without the heat being stirred up on the inside.  Stop worrying about what’s at the top, what people see and use what you have, take all that flavor, the reside from your trials and tribulations and use it to sprinkle your light upon this world.  That residue is where your flavor is, where your power is, the heat ignited it and made you soft and malleable to His plan and purpose.  People think being soft is a four letter word.  It isn’t.  Being mean is.  Being rough is, being untrustworthy,  undependable, unusable, unfaithful, unchanging.  Those are four letter words in the kingdom.  Stop letting people talk you into what they see of you and be who God called you to be.  Be the residue, the flavor, the change in this world.  Be ye Holy as I am holy. 

You can’t be holy and in this world.  You can’t stride the fence.  You either have to be all in or all out.  His Word says that we need to be either hot or cold.  Your fence striding will get you evicted from eternal life.  I’m not telling you what your desire is, but mine is to have my Kingdom passport stamped and approved with entrance into the main destination. 

Be ye holy!!  Be the residue that lifts a path for others to see. 

Be A Blessing and not just Blessed

Nakya