What the world needs is-- a good grilled cheese sandwich

By John Stallings

I’m serious.

When I get finicky & don’t know what I really want to eat, I’ll usually go for a good grilled cheese sandwich. I used to love to add a piping hot bowl of soup [ New England clam chowder] but these days with my doctor fussing at me about sodium, I find myself leaving off the soup most of the time & eating the grilled cheese sandwich. [Chips go good with the sandwich but they’re salty too!]

My wife Juda makes a great grilled cheese sandwich for the same reason she’s good with an iron, but I’ll get to that later. I can’t iron, period. I’ve tried it many times & I don’t have the touch. I’ll leave the imprint of the iron right on the garment every time, plus I’ll iron in more wrinkles than I iron out. I just can’t do it, at least not with any confidence. Why? I’ll explain.

PATIENCE! ---- Or shall I say lack of patience? It takes patience to iron & it also takes patience to make a good grilled cheese sandwich. I like the cheese melted well & I also like the bread to be soaked with “I can’t believe it’s not butter” with a slight burned look but not so much as to taste burned.

Now about the grilled cheese; if you want a good sandwich you’ve got to get a few things right. You must exercise patience in getting the temperature just right. Also to be successful in making the sandwich to perfection you have to turn it just at the right time. A bad grilled cheese sandwich isn’t the end of the world, or by any means a big tragedy-- but it is a shame.

Patience is a key ingredient in lots of things in life. I’m convinced that most people, when they say they can’t do something, they really mean they don’t have the patience to fool with it.

I never thought I could be a computer nut & I’m sure I wouldn’t have been in my younger days, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve become a little more patient. That’s really about all it takes, along with a couple of brains cells to rub together. Juda & I can even exchange worn out components in computers if we have to.

I heard about a policeman who watched an impatient lady driver honking at the person in front of her to move on through a busy intersection as the light was turning red. The officer walked up to her car, knocked on her window & told the lady to follow him to the police station. She was actually taken down to the station & put in a jail cell. A couple of hours later the officer came back to the holding cell & released the shocked woman & as they walked out he apologized for the misunderstanding.

He told her that when he saw her pitching such a fit at the intersection, he walked up behind the car she was driving & noticed several stickers on her car, One saying “follow me to Sunday school,” another one saying “honk if you love Jesus,” & another fish symbol which of course is an old Christian symbol. The officer said, “Lady, I apologize but when I saw all those signs & the way you were behaving, I just knew you were driving a stolen car.”

I’ve observed that in our society if you act as if you’re not all disturbed & upset when you have to wait for something, people will spot you.

Recently I was about twelfth in line at the post office & the lady behind the counter would occasionally glance back at me with a confused look on her face. When I arrived at the counter she asked how I could be so patient. To be frank I guess I was hiding my feelings better than I thought I was. If almost fifty years in the ministry teaches you anything it teaches you not to be too emotionally transparent. I gave her my standard line at times like that; I said jokingly, “Oh, I’m not really patient, I’ve just given up in life.” As I said it’s just a joke which I think is funny but it seldom gets a laugh.

My point is, sometimes it helps to-- not give up-- but to scale down our expectations & develop some patience. I can say one thing unequivocally; if you & I are growing at all in Christian maturity, we’re growing in love & patience.

The Bible says God is slow to anger.—Ex.34:6, Num. 14:18, Neh. 9:17, Ps.86:15, 103:8, 145:8, Jer.15:15.

The New Testament word for patience is Makrothumia, “longsuffering, & “forbearance.”

In Acts 26:3 Paul asked Agrippa, -- “I beg you to listen to me patiently.”

In Galatians 5:22 we see that patience is-- the fruit of the spirit.

In 2 Timothy 4:2 the word is to be preached—with all patience.

In 1 Peter 3:20—to the sinners in Noah’s day God showed patience.

Speaking of grilled cheese sandwiches, in Hosea 7:8 God says, about the tribe of Ephraim,--Ephraim is a cake half-turned.

God said Ephraim was burned on one side & raw on the other side.

It takes patience to make a good grilled cheese, it takes patience to make a mature Christian & it takes patience to develop a strong church. God’s word & example should be our standard practice when it comes to patience.

God told the church at Philadelphia ----Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. ---Revelation 3:10

P.S---I posted this last night but the news has come in about a tragic 70 car pile-up not far from our home, between Orlando & Lakeland Florida. Thus this foot-note. Juda & I were just discussing this tragedy. The question, "how could this happen" came up & of course the short answer is because of a combination of smoke from a small brush fire & early morning fog. Visibility was diminished & as so often happens good people & skillful drivers plunge ahead into calamity.

We learned decades ago that 1-4 between Orlando & Winter Haven is a death trap because from 5:am-7:am there isn't a cop in sight.

But one other thing comes to mind, [& this isn't meant to be in any way judgemental,] Americans are so impatient. Several people have died & many have been maimed on I-4 & if the details parallel other chain-reaction pile-ups, many were in such a hurry they were driving too fast for conditions.

The graveyards are full of people who could have lived if they'd had a few seconds more patience. This is just a rhetorical question but, why are we in such a hurry? Where is it we have to be that's worth dying for?

Please, lets make one of our new years determinations to slow down & be a little more patient. Our grandparents would wait a week for another train & our blood pressure goes up if we miss one blade in a revolving door. I'm guilty too so won't you join me. Lets slow down & live.

Blessings,

Easy does it!


John