Broiled Not Boiled

I get it.  Really, I do.  High tech momentum is fueling innovation and discovery at increasing velocity.  Phones, watches, health and exercise bracelets, houses that respond through instruction from those very devices; and all this in your automobile and more.

Faster, smaller, smarter… barriers have been blown by without so much as a speed check.

But here’s what I can’t quite comprehend.  What’s happened to Brussels sprouts?  How come red and yellow beets are the hottest food in salads?  Why is it that the coolest restaurants find ways to mask the true character and taste of kale and obliterate it right into your next course?

But I digress; back to the Brussels sprouts.  These embryonic cabbages that fill your home with a stench that compels you to look in the backyard for a skunk.  These mini-green balls used to be a safe “I hate this food.”  I will simply say that whatever this vegetable lacked in size, smell and taste… boiling the heck out of them didn’t help; and that’s my memory of how they were prepared when I was a child.  For all of the fabulous qualities that my mother possessed – Brussels sprouts racked and stacked at the bottom.

Enter culinary innovation.  Enter a hot oven instead of 212 degree water.  Enter seasoning, and balsamic vinegar, sesame seeds, and oven-browned leaves to replace intense water torture.  Walla! – fantastic food.  Worthy of not only eating, but ordering in a restaurant – yes, trading currency for it.

Innovation, creativity and technique have done little for the smell… but the taste has been transformed.

Step aside Apple, stand down Samsung, hold your horses Google…

If Brussels sprouts, then what else.  What other safe harbor of disdain and disgust is ready for siege?  Is it possible that the “safe to dislike and dismiss” column of my life is under attack?

Stereotypes?
Political dogma?

I mean, really – is there anything safe to hate?

Jesus hung on the cross to change the recipe for all that smelled evil.  The message of Jesus changed everything.  It produced disdain in the self-righteous and hope for the broken hearted.

Broiled not boiled… Jesus brought sacrificial love in the form of grace – and much that seemed safe to hate changed.

^“So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.  Since God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would never know Him through human wisdom, He has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles,Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:20-24)

Who would have thought…