Multi-purpose spoons

I haven't blogged in over a year. Mostly because I've been busy with work (and I still am), but also because I haven't really felt like I had anything to write about. I have had many independent thoughts over the past year, but they never came to maturity - most-likely because I never wrote about them (see that catch-22 right there? end parentheses. In the meantime, I've been trying to write music to stir my creativity, mostly to no avail. I'm not a terribly poetic person. But I do enjoy writing quite a bit.

Anyway, I've, erm...met someone who has absolutely inspired me with her own creativity. Her mind contains its own magical land full of adventure and beauty that I can't help but be drawn into. It's the kind of land where Narnia is a real place, men are still knights in shining armor, and one can order up the weather they desire that weekend. As I watch the light shine off her eyes, behind which is this beautiful reality, I realize that I'm noticing little things more. They're the kinds of little things that I wouldn't consider worthwhile to write amount, much less even think about. But then again, God wasn't in the wind, earthquake, or the fire. He was in a whisper. (1 Kings 19:11-12)

Not this one, but seriously. How are these purposes related?

And then today I noticed in the cafeteria at work, as I went to grab a spoon, the sign above the spoons: "Multi-purpose spoons". I wouldn't have noticed, or even taken the slightest account of this oddity, during the past year. However, I immediately became curious: What constitutes a one-purpose spoon? I wondered to myself. Surely I can find many purposes for any spoon! I'm an engineer!

And surely, I have. I began counting the ways I've used spoons in the past - from building little popsicle bridges with them, to scooping up loose screws out of a computer case.

But what about spoons that aren't multi-purpose? What a sad and lonely life they would lead! I believe I've met one of these single-purpose spoons before. He was marketed as an egg spoon; perfectly shaped for picking up a hard-boiled egg. But does it mean that just because one is an egg spoon, he can't be used for soup, or putting sugar in tea? It would be sad for him to wait around only for special occasions. I can imagine the anticipation he would have when an egg is pulled out of the refrigerator, and the disappointment once the egg began to be scrambled. So close!

And yet, I believe we may garner some truth from this observation. You see, for the past year, my only form of creativity was music. I enjoy playing music quite a bit, but creating music doesn't come very naturally to me. It's something at which I enjoy practicing and improving, but it doesn't fill me up since it's such a struggle. The problem, I believe, is that I'm actually a multi-purpose spoon, who, for some reason or another, decided he wanted to be an egg spoon. Some people are egg spoons, and I appreciate their utility in the cases in which they are used! And though I could eventually pick up the egg, I wasn't terribly well suited for it and it was a clumsy, bumbling experience.

So, I'm going back to my first love: writing. By no means does this mean that I'll stop practicing and writing music! However, I'm going back to the things that fill me up, bring me joy, and allow me to truly express my utility and purpose so that when the time arrives for me to clumsily pick up an egg again, I will have the energy to try.

This made me think of the following verse:

Revelation 2:4: But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love]. (AMP)

Now, I know is about Christ as one's first love - but if you did come to Him at one time or another, it was through an experience suited uniquely for you.

Have you deserted your first love? Have you forgotten what initially drew you close to Christ?