Loving The Process

I admit that I’m a backyard BBQ enthusiast.  I enjoy grilling steaks and hamburgers, but what I’ve come to enjoy most is smoking babyback pork ribs.  For many years my wife and I have gone to the ribfest in Lincoln.  I got to thinking that I could make ribs just as good.  Last year I humbly confess that I mastered the feat of making some of the best  babyback ribs I have ever tasted.  It’s quite a process.  It takes about six hours to produce some of the most mouth watering, tender, wonderfully smoked flavored ribs you can imagine.  First I apply a special dry rub to the ribs and then I brush them with a special blend of apple juice and BBQ sauce.  I smoke them for three hours on a special smoker, adding apple wood chips to compliment the BBQ sauce.  After three hours of smoking at around 230 degrees, I finish them off in the oven, wrapped in foil smothered in my special sauce.  When they are done the meat literally falls off the bone, it’s delicious! Best ribs I’ve ever had, but then again I’ll admit that I’m a bit biased.  The thing of it is, I enjoy the whole process.  Not just the eating of the ribs.  For me it’s the process that makes it all worth while.  I’m thinking it’s the same way with God.  We might be tempted to think that what thrills God the most is the end result….us being conformed into the image of Christ.  But, I’m thinking that God enjoys the process just as much, as God interacts us with, marinates us in his grace, so that eventually our whole lives will be flavored with God’s love and goodness….so that when others taste of our lives they will be tasting of the goodness of Christ who lives within us!  Gotta go, it’s time to have some ribs…