THE WORRY ABOUT CURRY
by dean krippaehne - Feb. 2004

Last Wednesday was my daughter, Kelsey's, birthday. She is a 19 year old freshman at the University of Washington in Seattle. Because she is living away from home now we had no birthday party planned but I still wanted to celebrate with her in some way. So I called her up that morning and asked, "do you want to go out to eat somewhere in Seattle for your birthday tonight? You just name the place - any restaurant - and we'll go."

I was pretty excited about my meal proposition to her because I thought that if she accepted - not only would I get to spend some time with her - but I would also get to go out and enjoy some fine dining at whatever fancy restaurant she picked.

She responded quite favorably to my invitation and then asked, "Dad, do you like Indian food?" - A flash of apprehension came over me - I knew exactly what she was talking about but I tried to play dumb in hopes of steering - what I thought to be her cuisine choice - in some other direction. "Indian food," I replied without hesitation, "You mean like fresh baked Salmon and corn-on-the-cob - yeah, I love it!"

"No dad, not American Indian food - I mean Middle Eastern, Mediterranean style Indian food." I knew exactly what she had meant in the first place I was just hoping for something else but because it was her birthday and I wanted her to pick the restaurant in which we would eat - I lied. I said "Yes, I love that stuff."

To be honest I'm not really all that familiar with Middle Eastern food. I'm not at all what you would call an adventurous eater. No, much to my wife's displeasure, I am as meat-and-potatoes as they come. A gourmet meal to me is going out for a Big Mac, fries and chocolate shake.

I was, I confess, quite reluctant to go but it was my daughters birthday and this was her wish. So I swallowed as much of my reluctance as I could and headed out to meet her. I silently hoped that maybe at this particular restaurant they had a children's menu with a grilled cheese sandwich on it that I could safely order.

We arrived at the restaurant (near her college) at 7:00 o'clock and were seated right away. My daughter just beamed with that proud kind of excitement that you get when you are "turning your dad on to" some new kind of first time experience that makes him feel uneasy and not-at-all-in-control. (Dad's like to live in the fantasy that they are in control at all times). She seemed to fit in perfectly with the neo-hip-college-crowd while I felt like I was on a different planet or revisiting some modern version of the 1968 Height-Ashbury culture - it got even worse for me when our server brought us the menus. I seem to get real nervous any time I'm at a restaurant and don't recognize the names of the food that they are serving.

We ordered stuff like: "shish taouk," "vindaloo," "royal biryani," "Tamil mulligatawny" and "aloo parathas"... The only word I really recognized was the word "curry" - which seemed to appear with almost every dish.

And then, to make matters worse, after ordering the stuff - the food actually came to our table. We were served. It was at about that time that I started longing for a good old fashioned greasy pepperoni pizza.

Well, quite reluctantly, bite by bite, I started testing and tasting. By the end of the evening I had sampled everything on the table and guess what - it wasn't that bad - in fact some of it was pretty good. I think I'd even go back there and do it again - maybe take some unsuspecting friend with me.

Have you ever been asked to do something that you were reluctant to do - something that was "out of your comfort zone?” Have you been asked to do some new thing that you knew you should do but you just didn't really want to do it? How about this; Have you ever been asked - oh, lets say by God maybe - to share your faith in Christ with non-believers?

Jesus says to us in His great commission: " Go then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matt: 28: 19- 20)

We have indeed been asked or commissioned by our Lord to share our faith with non-believers. And some of us feel very tentative and quite reluctant to do that.

In Jeremiah 1:6 after being called by the Lord, Jeremiah answers; "Sovereign Lord, I don't know how to speak; I am too young."

Jeremiah, too, felt reluctant to answer the Lord's call and yet even in his reluctance God would accomplish great things.

Sometimes, we have to do things that we are reluctant to do - we have to step outside of our comfort zones for the sake of Christ. I didn't very much want to eat that Middle Eastern food on my daughter's birthday night out but as I took my first bite, then my second and third, I discovered that it wasn't really as awful as I had first imagined.