The Bagels of Happiness

          Yes, technically, they're boiled bagels. Yes, technically, that is coffee cake topping spilling out of them. But technically, it doesn't matter, because no one could tell what they are by looking at them. They look kind of like a cross between mud pies and Hot-crossed Buns. (I didn't make the holes big enough this time around.) 

         Really, they're delicious. After searching for a good bagel recipe for a very long time, I came across this one and after tweaking it my liking, they're a breeze to make and taste amazing. I have done plain, coffee cake, blueberry, and cinnamon-raisin so far. And to prove that they're a success, my brothers eat them like they're candy.

          They're not pretty this time around, but pretty is overrated. Just eat them. 

Boiled Bagels of Happiness

4 Cups of flour 

(I use whole wheat, but have done it with half white and they turned out a bit lighter. I image that using all white would be wonderful as well.)

5 teaspoons of yeast 

1 1/2 Cups of warm water (by warm I mean hot, but not boiling) 

3 tablespoons of sugar OR 2 tablespoons of honey

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1. In a large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of flour with the yeast. Add to this the water, the sugar or honey, and your salt. Beat with a mixer on low for 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl clean. Then beat on high for 3 minutes. After this, mix in an additional 2 cups of flour, or enough to make a moderately stiff dough.*

*If you are adding dry blueberries, cinnamon or sugar, or any other desired flavoring, add it now.

2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it until it is smooth and elastic, adding the rest of the flour as needed. (I usually knead it for about 4-5 minutes.) Cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

3. Cut the dough into 8 equal portions, rolling each into a smooth ball. With your finger, poke a hole in the center and shape each into a bagel. I usually just leave the dough through the hole on my finger and swing it around like a hula-hoop while the hole stretches. Whatever your method is will work fine. Put them on a greased cookie sheet, cover, and let them rise for 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, start a gallon of water boiling, stir into it the last tablespoon of sugar, and turn on your oven broiler.

5. When the bagels have risen, broil them lightly on each side, about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Turn off the broiler and preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

6. Dump, throw, or gently set your bagels into the boiling water. (My pot fits three at a time.) Boil them for 7 minutes or so, flipping them once. Drain them, place them on greased pan,* and pop them in the oven for 20 -25 minutes.

*If you are doing some topping, such as a coffee cake topping, add it now.

Remove from oven and enjoy! They're best right out of the oven with a glass of milk, in my opinion.  

{The Desperate}

            
              There is a frightened child inside of each of us. There is a broken criminal, a grieving soul, a torn heart beating in every chest. All around you, mentally, there are castaways locked in stone cells. All around you there are cowering people who are crying from fear; silent people who have been screaming for too long for help and have finally lost their voice

                The voice of the desperate is a voice we can all understand, because we have all been desperate at some point. It is a cry that passes races, passes borders, passes ages. Everyone has been the blood-shot, wide-eyed victim with nowhere to go. Everyone has been through the nights when you wonder if you'll come out alright with the rising sun.

                And yet this voice, this voice we all know so well: it is the easiest one to ignore. The easiest one not to hear.

                Because we're selfish.

                And we don't want to be reminded what desperate looks like and what desperate sounds like. We were desperate once, and it was painful, and we don't want to hurt again. We don't want to remember the time we were lost.

                So we look away from those who are hurting now, as if they're some taboo substance. As if what they're going through is more shameful than what we went through. As if, somehow, they are sinning more than we sinned. As if they are less people because they've been desperate so long.

         We're less people because it's taken us this long to hear them.

                And what we don't seem to understand is that these desperate people are normal. They are the majority. But we've thwarted our view so much that we think they're the minority. We think happy  people like ourselves are the majority and our peaceful lives are more normal in the world.

                But they're not.

                There are hundreds of abortions performed every day. There are  thousands of people caught in slavery. One out of every 2 children live in a single-parent home. 45 people are murdered every day, (besides abortion.) Dieing alone. Living alone. Living invisible lives. Living lives shaped by immense grief.

            And this is normal to so many people. This is what they're living in. This is what they're living with. This is who they are. 

            This is what has molded them.

            And they're crying. The tears are breaking away their heart because no one is willing to bend down to where they are lying to lift them up. No one is willing to show them the love of God because we haven't taught our knees to bend that much or our neck to stoop that low.

            Because we think that we're being good Christians by staying away from these things. We think that God has commanded us to have nothing to do with these sins. But, actually, he's commanded  us not to sin in these areas ourselves. But He never said that we shouldn't help those caught in them.

            And we're just being down-right selfish to say otherwise.

            Jesus dined with a tax-collector. He spoke with an adulteress. He encountered the demon-possessed. He worked his will through redeemed murderers. He was crucified between two criminals.

            Jesus had everything to do with the desperate.

            In Luke 18:35-42 there is a story of a blind beggar sitting by the side of the road. When this man hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, he cries out that the Lord would have mercy on him, because this man is desperate. He is desperate to be released from his blindness that has shaped his life.

            Jesus is in a crowd in the street at this time. I see these people as the ones who are in some way following this King of Nazareth. This is the general crowd which has heard his teachings and seen his miracles or at least heard of them. And yet when they hear this blind beggar calling out,

            they silence him.

            Verse 39:And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me.

           

            Sometimes I think we are that crowd, professing to follow Jesus, but silencing the very ones for which he has come to show mercy. We have read his words and have learned of this majestic Father who mercifully reached down and brought us to life while we were dead in desperation.

            But we see the desperate ones around us, and we walk on. We silence them.

            They're not good enough for us to associate with. They are a part of taboo lives that good Christians have nothing to do with.

            We disregard the dirt in the world around us, shake the dust from our clothes, turn our eyes politely, and walk on by. Walk on to our gold-gilded church buildings to read from our new Bibles and wear our silk suits. To impress us. To impress those around us. To make some statement that we are the good ones.

            But we're selfish. We're disgustingly selfish.

            Because we have been given mercy boundless and free, even we when were desperate. And to whom much is given, much is required.

           

            The desperate need love. They need the mercy and grace of those who say they're been saved by a loving God. We need to stop turning up our holy noses. If we say we are followers of Christ, then we need to walk where he walked.

            And he walked among the loveless so he could show his love.

            You once stunk as bad as they. You once screamed as loud as they. You were once them.  

 And Jesus did not pass by you.

I am not discrediting God's sovereign work, and the fact that He can save without man's work on earth. He does not have to work through us to save the desperate. But he chooses to work through us for His glory, and He has commanded us to live lives reflecting the love he has shown us.

We are loving Christ when we love the broken, and his purposes are worked through us when we obey his call to reach out to the least of these. For whatever we have done unto them people, we have done unto Christ. 

You Have Good Reason to Rise Up

Because we are the sons and daughters of Christ. Don't you just want to get up and dance when you see this? I do.

And Rise up, we will rise up 

He's alive, He's alive inside us and we will rise up

We claim the victory, He won on Calvary, celebrate the king of glory 

So rise up; people of the Lord rise up!

 Have a beautiful weekend remembering the sacrifice that was made so that we could become children of God.

I'm off to make some silk flowers for my hair for tomorrow. 

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

 1 Corinthians 4:10

{They Have Not}

We have water.

We have food.

We have love.

We have medicine.

We have homes.

We are warm, and we are dry, and we are whole, and we are filled.

We have.

They have not.

And yet how often we are silent.

From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)

And from our hearts come all the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

And from the thoughts of our hearts, and the thoughts of our minds, our actions take form.

And yet so often we do not act. And so often we are silent.

Therefore, our hearts are empty, because nothing is pouring forth.

And if our hearts did have a love for others - if there was something in our hearts -

no one would

ever

know.

Because we do not move.

We sit. We eat. We drink.

We revel in the fullness of our lives.

While people are hungry. People are thirsty.

And people are in darkness.

For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you,

Inasmuch as ye have cone it unto one of the lease of my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

(Matthew 25:35-40)

Katie in Uganda

When the Saints


What don't have to go across the country. We don't have to be called to war-torn areas. We don't have to start a website or sell tee-shirts or raise thousands of dollars.

We have to be the hands of Christ wherever we are and everywhere we are. And the world will know us by our Love.