Pancakes with Ketchup

One day while watching one of my favorite talk shows, a young girl from Haiti was featured.  She ‘d recently been adopted by a family in America and literally left a life of devastation to enter into a little girl’s fantasy land; complete with all the toys, clothes, and food she could ever want. 

While in Haiti the young girl rarely had food to eat, therefore when she moved to America with her adopted parents, they went through a season in which the young girl would hoard food because of her fear that there wouldn’t be any the next time she was hungry. Of course she eventually stopped the hoarding when she realized it was not necessary.

What was interesting is that during the course of the interview the little girl was asked about her favorite food. Surprisingly the little girl responded, “Pancakes with ketchup.”

Pancakes with ketchup?

Remember, this little girl is not from America. She has no idea that in America most of us don’t eat pancakes with ketchup. To her, it didn’t matter that her new adopted family found it odd, or that the interviewer looked shocked.

This child was in a new environment but she was not trying to hold on to what she knew in her old environment. Growing up in Haiti, most of the time if she was able to eat, she would eat rice and beans. But now in this new environment she wasn’t eating the old food, she was eating something new. Regardless if the people around her thought it was strange, she enjoyed her new environment with the new food.

This made me think. Maybe we all need pancakes with ketchup in our lives.  

Let me explain.

As leaders in ministry, how many of us feel the Holy Spirit nudging us into a new place in our lives, but are too afraid to move?  If you are like me, you may start taking the steps necessary to get to the new place, but you insist on holding on to the things of old.

In my professional work as a mental health therapists I have certain themes that I use in my practice.  One of those themes is a popular quote that says: “The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over but expect a different result.” 

Almost every Sunday you can find the men and women of God all around the world singing, dancing, and shouting about a “new season” but most of us are singing, dancing, and shouting while holding on to all that junk in the old season.  We keep doing the same old things and act confused when we end up with the same results. 

We are afraid to do something new…something different…something strange.  We are afraid to try pancakes with ketchup.

Isaiah 43:19 (NLT) says “For I am about to do something new.  See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?”

Why wouldn’t God’s people see what was to come?  Maybe because they were stuck on what had been?  Maybe they were busy eating beans and rice and were afraid to try pancakes with ketchup.

Luke 5:37-38 (NKJ) says, “…no one puts new wine into old wineskins; …new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

In other words, you can’t try to do what you’ve always done if you are going to walk into something new.

Most of us, unlike the little Haitian girl, are afraid of trying new things because we are afraid to be different.  We are afraid to stand out from the crowd…to make waves…to challenge what has always been done.  We stay stuck in our rut, and stuck in our old situation, because going into the new situation may make others think we are odd, different, or strange. But the King James Version of 1 Peter 2:9 says those who are called of God should be strange…we should be considered a peculiar people. And as leaders, shouldn’t we lead the pact in being peculiar?

You know…the kind of people who would eat pancakes with ketchup.

So what do we do?  It’s simple. 

Today, starting right now, ask the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart about what you need to release from your yesterday so that you can walk boldly in your today. 

Tell God that you trust Him enough to try something new so that you can grab hold of what He has for you. 

Declare to the Father that no matter how strange it is…no matter how others may view you….no matter how odd you may feel, you are ready to embrace the new place that He’s been trying to move you towards. 

Tell God that you are ready for some pancakes with ketchup.