Missing Ingredient, May 23, 2012

My blueberry pancakes

I enjoy fixing homemade breakfast for my children each morning before school. I make them French toast, biscuits, eggs or pancakes from scratch. Today, I decided to make blueberry pancakes. As I mixed the flour, salt and other ingredients into the bowl I realized I did not have enough baking powder. But because I had everything else I just continued to mix and make the pancakes. As I cooked them on my griddle I noticed they looked a little flat but they did have the blueberries to sweeten them a bit. My children had no problem gobbling them up with their syrup of course. I tried one without syrup and almost spit it out. I thought to myself it was the lack of the baking powder, thank God I put those blueberries in to cover that foul.

Our lives are like that blueberry pancake at times. They seem sweet, smell tantalizing, look great from the outside, give us some sustenance but lack a major ingredient.  Have you ever noticed when things felt like they were going great but still your life felt flat and unfulfilled? Do you ever feel like you just cannot seem to be satisfied, like you keep searching for the missing ingredient in your life?

In our culture we believe success, achievement, money and material goods will fill us up to the top. But there are CEO’s of successful companies that are depressed. They have the American Dream but are not satisfied. They are missing a major ingredient: God! If you do not have faith, a belief in a higher being or some type of religion you will find yourself disappointed with your life. Sure you can add the blueberries to try to sweeten your life but it will not cover the missing ingredient forever. The rich who are able to give and serve others are the happy ones. The people who have found God and are seeking out their purpose in this life for a greater good are content. The people who have relationships with God regardless of cultural “success” are satisfied with life.

If you are searching for the ingredient; tasting that pancake wondering “what am I missing” then evaluate your life. Do you believe in God, in goodness, in service, in loving others, in searching for a purpose beyond your own gain? Search your heart today and discover the missing ingredient in your life. Stop adding all the blueberries and find the baking powder which will help you to grow as a person.