Tag Archives: Menu or special order

Menu or special order?

How would you respond if the real Jesus appeared to you face to face? Would you consider the person to be disillusioned or discount the encounter as a hoax? Jesus Himself appeared to many people after his death on the cross. And even before his death He warned us that as we minister to the needs of the marginalized (the hungry, poor, those in jail, etc) we would actually be ministering to Him.

The movie, The Encounter, takes an engaging and dramatic look at what it might be like to encounter the real risen Jesus in this life and is worth the watch. In the first film, five unrelated people end up taking refuge in an isolated diner during a storm. The man behind the counter, Jesus, welcomes them and asks them if they’d like to order off the “menu or special order.” All special orders are a free gift. Jesus already knows their favorite meal and prepares it to their highest expectation.

As I think about his question, “Menu or special order?” I am reminded of the choices I have available to me every single day. I can simply accept what is on the standard “menu” for the day…the prescribed and comfortable activities, the daily routine, my same pattern of thinking through things in my own way, my same expectations of how the day will go, and my same response to my circumstances. There are choices, but they all seem limited to what is on “the menu.”

OR… I can make a “special order.” In other words, I can skip the standard menu of limited choices, and choose instead to access the ‘chef’s finest’ options. It would be like dialing up a sunny afternoon at the beach when it’s raining where I am or a walk in the forest while I am in the middle of the city.

In reality, a “special order” IS available to us wherever we are and whenever we seek it. I am not talking about a ‘name it and claim it’ approach to materialistic spirituality (an oxymoron, no?). But we DO have the opportunity to special order peace in the midst of chaos, faith instead of doubt and fear, strength in the presence of weakness, forgiveness instead of bitterness. We can special order endurance instead of giving up, love instead of disdain, kindness instead of apathy, purpose instead of a wasted day, and real hope instead of mere wishes.

Jesus freely offers all this and more to his followers every day. But the choice is ours: “What will you have today: the standard menu, or special order?”

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17