It's Never About the Pizza

A dear friend and I sat one afternoon and talked the hours away. During our conversation, she told a story of being angry with her husband.  He ate the last piece of pizza. Not just any pizza. Her carefully saved and looked-forward-to-eating gluten-free pizza.

And he ate it.

The last slice.

However, as the talk went further, we discovered she had been dealing with added stress in life. Pressure had built within and the pizza ... well ... BOOM!

The chat ended with a saying we still use. "It's Never About the Pizza."

Realizing it's never about the pizza is highly useful on two fronts.

First, in you. Recognize this is most likely true in your life as well. We let little and big disappointments, aggravations, failures, betrayals, misunderstandings ... the list goes on ... build up unreconciled and then it happens. The dog chews up your favorite pair of shoes. Your son loses the hammer. A stranger cuts you off in traffic.

Someone eats your pizza and BOOM.

It's useful to keep the pizza principle in mind as you encounter others who are not having such a great day.

You know what I mean. You ask people all the time "How are you?" and almost everyone says fine. Then there's that one who stops and gives you waaaaay TMI about the infected splinter he removed this morning or she describes in full detail the stomach virus she suffered two days ago. You listen with eyes glazed over and your brain transmits I-can't-believe-I'm-hearing-this.

It could be you are late for an appointment and apologize all over yourself but get an earful instead of forgiveness.

Those co-workers, store clerks, and total strangers live with stress too. You and I don't know what's going on in the back corners of their hearts and minds. But you accidently eat the pizza and BOOM.

It isn't God's will for us to survive under a veil of anxiety and worry. It is not His will for us to tread water in hopes of the demands on us will ease before we ... well ... go BOOM.

I challenge you to do a word/passage study on the word trust. I love Isaiah 26:3, You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.

In response to God's provision, grace, and love we can:

Be kind.

Be patient.

Be unassuming.

Be nonjudgmental.

And remember,

It's never about the pizza.