Last night I made hoisin-glazed boneless ribs with garlic broccoli. It was supposed to be broccolini, but my local grocery store was out of broccolini, and I didn’t feel like driving to a Whole Foods to find some.
I have determined that my local grocer is a broccolini hater.
The hoisin-glazed boneless ribs was a first-time recipe for me. I tend to feel like I screw up first attempts at recipes, so I don’t put a lot of time into the photo of a first-time recipe. It ended up being okay. The dark bits on the meat weren’t burned. They were places where the hoisin clumped up.
While I was cooking the pork, it seemed the recipe was lying and I lowered the heat before it said to do so. It was a mistake, and I kicked myself for it later.
I have learned that I should have trust in recipes from experts, because they have done this very act a thousand times and they are the professionals.
It’s like airline piloting or … science. The professionals in those fields are usually trust worthy. I almost wrote that I should have “faith” in professionals, but that’s not accurate. “Faith” isn’t the same thing. Faith isn’t even in the same ballpark.
Trust is different than “faith.” Faith is belief in something unseen. But I can see, taste, smell and hear the cooking experience. I can verify with my senses that a professional is communicating a recipe for a successful meal. Faith, on the other hand, has no such provable outcome.
Last night, the skeptic in me took over and it almost cost me the recipe. I ended up having to cook the meat longer, thus drying some pieces out. Trust the recipe and the meal will be a success. Doubt the recipe and the results may suck, and pizza delivery or making a sandwich may be the only salvation.
This is where I shove a wooden square in a round hole.
This may be contrived to say, but many believers see the bible as a recipe book for success. And in some ways, there are some good bits of advice in the book. But the book is also littered with a LOT of bad advice. So one part of the recipe says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and the next bit says, “Hate your family and love Jesus.”
This is not a recipe for success. It’s a recipe that can’t be saved with a pizza delivery or a sandwich.
As opposed to cooking (or science), world religions require faith in the unseen and the unprovable. I criticize people for not acknowledging that. Religious people should recognize what it really is, and I think Rob Bell sort of does that for Christians — which is why people like my uncle think he’s full of shit.
Religion recipes often result in bad-tasting social behavior, which is why I don’t trust it. I want to trust that the outcome of my thoughts and behaviors are going to have positive results on my neighbors both near and far.
Chew on that for a second. Or don’t.
Last night, I checked my site stats before turning out the light. Le Café got a nice hit boost yesterday thanks to the post about Rob Bell.
I added a comment this morning to lure people into a conversation. I would imagine that anyone who likes Rob Bell isn’t a typical believer, and therefore might be worthy of a conversation.
Who knows if it will do any good.
Happy Sunday!
Posted by Jeremy 
