Just in case

Admit it, he's smarter than you.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "No one was ever converted with an argument"? I know I wasn't. You could have reasoned, screamed, or bribed me, and I would have tossed Christianity aside out of sheer habit. Don't get me wrong here, there were seeds planted all around me, but no one incident or person converted me. 

Well, other than Christ.

Just know it wasn't any one human person. 

Well, again, other than Christ, who is an exceptional person with that dual nature of His. 

Gah! I am so not cut out for this kind of stuff. You know what, how about we assume that in any given conversion, the cause of it wasn't you, and it won't be you because it's always Him?

Don't take me wrong here. Even Thomas Aquinas realized his vast knowledge didn't even scratch the surface of Truth. After his glimpse of Heaven, he was ready to trash The Summa as woefully inadequate. So even the best apologists among us is merely "budding." Take care that you don't let your pride trick you into thinking that if you just keep at a person, they'll convert. Sure, take the opportunities as they arise, but your best efforts will be when you aren't even aware of them. Let your life feed your compassion for others, both your joys and your sorrows; let your understanding that you live for Someone else shine like a beacon from your every action and God will do His work through you. That's tougher than it sounds, but that's God's way. If you go your way, you get in the way. Don't make Him have to work around you.

All I'm saying is be humble. Listen. Pray. Be careful. That's a delicate seedling there, that slow conversion of a soul.

P.S. But just in case we're all wrong about the whole "You can't earn your way to Heaven" thing, would you please comment below if this blog has converted you? I'm feeling the need for extra credit.

Aw dang

Heavenly Humbling Homemade Olive Oil Mayo

Is it just me or do you sometimes get the feeling the angels are laughing at you?
"Silly human"

Last year I made my very first batch of Olive Oil Mayonnaise and planned on blogging about how simple and easy the recipe is. It's so easy and so good, in fact, that some restaurants make their mayonnaise in-house and you know how busy a restaurant kitchen is. It really is that simple and quick. In theory, anyway. That blog post never materialized. All I managed was this. (I was in a bit of a mood.) The mayonnaise was a disaster. Turns out I'd done everything right and still had a mess of inedible gloop in the end. Life's like that. It's just a little reminder that no matter what I think, I'm not in charge of things.

Since I don't like those little reminders, I don't usually take them lying down. I guess it's a holdover from my unrepentant heathen days that I hold onto the illusion that if I can plan things out to the last detail, everything will be fine. God knows better. Let's just say that He tosses me friendly and frequent reminders of who He is when I start to puff up with ignorant importance. This was one of those reminders. After the failure, I hunted around to find out what went wrong. As it turns out, olive oil can not be whipped with a metal utensil without sometimes developing a flat metallic taste. Sometimes. (?)(!)(...) I tried it with a wooden spoon and it turned out well. Then I tried it with plastic. Fine again. Then I tried it again with the metal and that was fine, too. Then I ran out of eggs. So I had to accept that sometimes using metal on mayo would make a mess and sometimes it wouldn't. Oh fine, then. 

So, let's get that straight before you start: use a metal whisk at your own risk. No matter what it tastes like, the mayo will turn out a bright yellow due to the egg yolks. If you find the idea of yellow mayo hard to stomach, I'm sure you could use only egg whites, but you may need to add an extra egg or two, maybe three. Let me know if you fiddle with this and how it turned out. I don't want to be the only lonely silly human around the place.

Enjoy!

Olive Oil Mayonnaise (Revised)

1 egg white, room temperature (the fresher the better)

1 Tbs vinegar or lemon juice
1 cup olive oil (have 1/4 cup ready in reserve)

salt to taste (try starting with 1/4 tsp)

Whip yolk, salt, and vinegar, and slowly add half of your oil. Then whip in remaining oil. It will begin to pull away from the bowl when it is thick enough. If too thick, add water by the drop. 

Use in the same way you always use mayonnaise.